If you have already sent a letter to your school to request either the COVID-19 supplement to your child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) required under new state law or compensatory services because you believe your child lost progress due to closures from the pandemic, and the school does not respond or provide the services in a prompt manner, parents should send a complaint letter to the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Passed in 2021, Senate Bill 89 requires schools to add a written supplement to a student’s IEP to address needed compensatory services for special education service reductions and lost progress resulting from school closures because of the pandemic. (If you haven’t sent a letter to your school yet, see Sample Letter to School Requesting Compensatory Education Services.)
You must submit a complaint letter to TEA in a timely manner. This is because there is a one-year deadline to file complaints with TEA to get corrective actions and compensatory education services. Please see our sample letter below that you can copy and paste into a document and then complete with your information where appropriate. We have included an email and fax number for sending. Or you can use our letter generator to create a customized complaint letter to send to TEA. You can also submit your complaint to TEA online.
Languages: this sample letter is available in English and Spanish. Be aware that DRTx recommends that you provide your letter in a language understandable to the party or entity receiving it, which in most circumstances will be English.
Sample TEA Complaint Letter About Compensatory Services
[Date]
[Parent Name]
[Street Address]
[City, State, Zip]
Texas Education Agency
SpecialEducation@tea.texas.gov
Fax: (512) 463-9560
TEA Special Education Complaints Process webpage
RE: Complaint against [School District]
To whom it may concern:
I am writing to file a complaint against the _____ ISD [school district]. My child, ________ [student’s name], was a student at __________ [campus name] during the school year ________ [e.g., 2020-21], including the time in the spring of 2020 when schools were ordered closed to in-person education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. _______ [name of student] is ____ years old and qualifies for special education services as a student with ________ [student’s diagnosis].
_________[name of student] has a condition that ________ [explain student’s disability and how it impacts education].
_______ [name of student] has lost progress during _________ [2019-2020 and/or 2020-2021] school year because of the school’s failure to: [choose however many are applicable]
1. Provide any special education services from [date to date]
2. Provide ALL special education services from [date to date]
3. Provide any related services from [date to date]
4. Provide ALL partial related services from [date to date]
5. Timely evaluate _______ [student’s name]
6. Timely develop initial IEP for ________ [student’s name]
[Add a description of the specific problems with technology access, instruction, accommodations, modifications, timelines that further explain the five choices above. For example: “In the beginning of the shutdown and switch to remote learning, the district only provided packets of work once a week that did not include student’s appropriate and agreed upon modifications reflected in his IEP. In late April, the district finally provided laptop, but there were access problems that took multiple days to identify and troubleshoot and then inappropriate packets were sent electronically through email with no scheduled direct instruction. This was drastically different than the services that general education students were provided during this time which included pre-recorded videos on YouTube and synchronous learning options. The lack of modifications has led to a loss of progress in Math, Reading and Science as evidenced by his failing grades in all three subjects.”]
I want TEA to order the school district to provide _______ [student’s name] with the COVID-19 IEP Supplement and compensatory services that will mitigate the impact of the loss of critical skills and learning that has occurred as a result of special education and related services that could not be provided during the pandemic.
If you have any questions, please call me at my daytime phone number _________ [enter the best phone number to reach you]. Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
[Parent Name]
[Phone Number]
[Email Address]
CC: Superintendent of ______ ISD [by fax or email]
Last updated: October 11, 2021
Publication Code: ED30
www.DRTx.org
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Online Intake available 24/7: intake.DRTx.org
Disclaimer: Disability Rights Texas strives to update its materials on an annual basis, and this handout is based upon the law at the time it was written. The law changes frequently and is subject to various interpretations by different courts. Future changes in the law may make some information in this handout inaccurate.
The handout is not intended to and does not replace an attorney’s advice or assistance based on your particular situation.
To request this handout in ASL, Braille, or as an audio file, contact us.
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