For families
Your rights as a parent.
If your child is in Early Intervention or has an IEP and English isn't your first language, federal law gives you specific rights. Here's what you actually get.
The right to understand
Your right to understand every IFSP or IEP team meeting.
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the district must take whatever action is necessary to ensure you understand the meeting — including arranging an interpreter for parents whose native language is not English. For IEP team meetings under Part B (ages three to twenty-one), this comes from 34 CFR § 300.322(e). For IFSP meetings under Part C (birth to three), the same duty runs through the native-language definition at 34 CFR § 303.25.
"Whatever action is necessary" is the actual phrase. It is not a suggestion.
The district is also required to translate the procedural safeguards notice into your native language, unless clearly not feasible. This is the document that explains your rights — including the right to request an evaluation, the right to consent or refuse, the right to disagree, and the right to file a due-process complaint. For Early Intervention families, the parallel document is the prior written notice required by 34 CFR § 303.421(f), which must likewise be given in your native language.
The right to give informed consent
In a language you read.
The school cannot evaluate your child, change their placement, or change the services they receive without your written consent. And consent is only valid if you were fully informed in your native language about what you are consenting to. For IEPs under Part B, this is from 34 CFR § 300.9. For IFSPs under Part C, consent must meet the definition at 34 CFR § 303.7 and the parental-consent procedures at 34 CFR § 303.420, given in your native language just the same.
If you are handed a form in English you cannot read and asked to sign — you have not given informed consent. You can ask the school to provide a translated version, or to sight-translate the form before you sign.
The right to an interpreter
Not your sibling. Not your neighbor.
The 2015 OCR/DOJ Dear Colleague guidance was explicit: schools must use trained interpreters and translators — not children, untrained bilingual staff, or family members. That means people with training, ethics commitments, and competence in specialized educational terminology.
If a school asks an older sibling, a neighbor, or an untrained bilingual staff member to interpret an IEP meeting, that does not satisfy federal law.
The right to disagree
Without giving up anything.
You have the right to disagree with the district's evaluation, with the proposed IEP, or with the proposed placement. Disagreeing does not waive any of your rights. If you disagree:
- You can request an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) at the district's expense.
- You can request mediation through your state's education department (in New Jersey, the NJ DOE).
- You can file a due-process complaint.
- You can file a state complaint with your state's education department (in New Jersey, the NJ DOE).
- You can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR).