New law expands parents’ rights to advance notice before IEP meetings

Starting with the 2025-2026 school year, a new special education law will expand a parent’s right to receive advance notice regarding certain information before an annual IEP meeting takes place.

Under federal and state special education laws, parents have what are known as “participation rights”. The purpose of these laws is to ensure that parents have a meaningful opportunity to provide their input regarding their child’s education program. These rights also help parents provide well-informed consent when their written consent is required by law. Some of the existing laws that support these participation rights require school districts:

• Explain the child study team evaluation reports and the proposed IEP
• Share the reasons for child study team decisions
• Provide advanced notice for school meetings and prior to implementing school decisions

The new law signed by Governor Murphy on July 22, 2025 requires additional notices and information to be provided to parents before an annual IEP meeting. (The annual IEP meeting is the meeting that must occur yearly around the anniversary date of the initial agreed upon IEP.) This law will help parents better understand their children’s progress and proposed IEPs and to be more effective at offering input and asking important questions at IEP meetings.

Per the law, at least 2 business days before the annual review, parents must receive a written statement by regular mail--and by email if the child study team has the parent’s email address. The statement should include:

• What will be discussed at the meeting
• The student’s current levels of academic and functional performance
• A list of names of any required school staff IEP members who will not attend and a statement of their observations and recommendations for the program and services they are responsible for. Parents have the right to reschedule the meeting for a date when all IEP members can attend.
• The parent’s right to provide input and feedback at the IEP meeting

The law also requires the New Jersey Department of Education to establish an IEP Working Group “to provide recommendations to the Department regarding methods to improve the development and implementation of the IEPs and to ensure parent involvement in the process. “ The committee will be made up of administrators, teachers, parents and advocates and child study team members.

For more information See P.L. 2025 c.107: https://pub.njleg.state.nj.us/Bills/2024/S4000/3982_R1.PDF

For further information, feel free to contact Nina Peckman, ACNJ Staff Attorney at npeckman@acnj.org.