Page:United States Reports 546.pdf/264

 546US1

Unit: $$U7

[09-04-08 12:12:39] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 546 U. S. 49 (2005)

53

Opinion of the Court

tional agency that they are acting in accordance with the State’s policies and procedures. § 1413(a)(1). The core of the statute, however, is the cooperative proc­ ess that it establishes between parents and schools. Row­ ley, supra, at 205–206 (“Congress placed every bit as much emphasis upon compliance with procedures giving parents and guardians a large measure of participation at every stage of the administrative process, . . . as it did upon the measure­ ment of the resulting IEP against a substantive standard”). The central vehicle for this collaboration is the IEP proc­ ess. State educational authorities must identify and evalu­ ate disabled children, §§ 1414(a)–(c), develop an IEP for each one, § 1414(d)(2), and review every IEP at least once a year, § 1414(d)(4). Each IEP must include an assessment of the child’s current educational performance, must artic­ ulate measurable educational goals, and must specify the na­ ture of the special services that the school will provide. § 1414(d)(1)(A). Parents and guardians play a signiﬁcant role in the IEP process. They must be informed about and consent to eval­ uations of their child under the Act. § 1414(c)(3). Parents are included as members of “IEP teams.” § 1414(d)(1)(B). They have the right to examine any records relating to their child, and to obtain an “independent educational evaluation of the[ir] child.” § 1415(b)(1). They must be given written prior notice of any changes in an IEP, § 1415(b)(3), and be notiﬁed in writing of the procedural safeguards available to them under the Act, § 1415(d)(1). If parents believe that an IEP is not appropriate, they may seek an administrative “im­ partial due process hearing.” § 1415(f). School districts may also seek such hearings, as Congress clariﬁed in the 2004 amendments. See S. Rep. No. 108–185, p. 37 (2003). They may do so, for example, if they wish to change an exist­ ing IEP but the parents do not consent, or if parents refuse to allow their child to be evaluated. As a practical matter,