POLICY LETTER: August 5, 2010 to Missouri Division of Special Education Assistant Commissioner Heidi Atkins-Lieberman

August 5, 2010Heidi Atkins-Lieberman Assistant Commissioner Division of Special EducationMissouri Department of Elementary and Secondary EducationP.O. Box 480Jefferson City. Missouri 65102-0480Dear Ms. Atkins-Lieberman:This is in response to your March 22, 2010 letter to Patty Guard, former Acting Director of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U.S. Department of Education. In your letter, you ask whether a responsible public agency is required to include the specific category of eligibility in a written notice of action when proposing to initiate services or placement in special education. You also ask whether, if the written notice of action does not require the category of disability to be listed, must a written notice of action be provided when a public agency denies a request from the parent to change the eligibility category.OSEP understands that the "notice of action" to which you refer is Missouri's form that functions as the Prior Written Notice required under 34 CFR 300.503. This regulation requires that written notice that meets the requirements of 34 CFR 300.503(a) must be given to the parents of a child with a disability a reasonable time before the public agency: (1) proposes to initiate or change the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of the child or the provision of a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to the child; or (2) refuses to initiate or change the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of the child or the provision of FAPE to the child. One of the required elements of this notice is "a description of the action proposed or refused by the agency." 34 CFR 300.503(h)(1).The Analysis of Comments and Changes to the final Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) regulations on August 14, 2006 noted that "the prior written notice [must be] provided a reasonable time before the public agency implements the proposal or refusal described in the notice." 71 FR Augu