Invitation to Participating Agency

Essential Elements

• For compliance with Indicator 13, a student’s file must show evidence that any outside agency, listed in the IEP as a Person/Agency Responsible for a Transition Service, was invited to the IEP meeting, and that prior written consent was obtained. The Indicator 13 requirement applies ONLY to an outside agency that will be responsible for providing a transition service.
• It is the school’s responsibility to invite those outside agencies to appropriate IEP team meetings.
• If the team thinks that an agency MAY be important to the student’s transition planning process, it is important to begin educating the student and family about the outside agency early in the student’s process.
• The outside agency application, intake or eligibility process may take a while, so start early. Otherwise, the outside agency may not be able to serve the student on the IEP timeline.
• If a high school or middle school is establishing departmental procedures for connecting students and families with outside agencies, consider standardized protocols for seeking prior consents. For example, a high school could decide to ask parents of incoming 9th graders to sign a release of information allowing the school to contact Vocational Rehabilitation NH or their regional agency for developmental services on behalf of the student.

Student Voice

Including an outside agency means giving people the student may not know access to their personal and confidential information. Student voice in involving outside agencies means allowing the student to be a part of the decision. When a school develops compliant processes for how agencies are invited into teams, this respects the student and family’s voices and choices in the planning process, and contributes to the student’s understanding that they have authority over their future decisions.