Back to School: Tips for Transitioning to a New IEP Team
August 31, 2026
By Kaya McRuer, Attorney, Northwest Justice Project, Washington Medical-Legal Partnership
Although Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are designed to help school teams provide continuity in support for students with disabilities, a reality I’ve seen as an education lawyer is that the specifics often get lost during IEP team transitions. Transitions can happen when a student moves from elementary school to middle school or middle school to high school; when the student changes districts or schools; or even when their special education teacher or other major service provider leaves and is replaced. In this post, I’ll share some steps students and their families can take to make these transitions smoother.
Transitioning IEP Accommodations
Accommodations are often written into IEPs as a broad explanation of what a student needs. For example, an accommodation may say that a student should receive frequent breaks, but not where they should be allowed to go during breaks or how they should request those breaks.
To prepare for future transitions, families can ask the IEP team to include more specific information about each accommodation in the IEP. Families can also request that new and old IEP team members talk to each other about how to implement different accommodations. Last, they can share with the new IEP team what works best for making the accommodations as effective as possible based on the student and family’s own experience.
Transitioning Services and Special Education Instruction
Based on a student’s IEP, they might require assistance from various service providers. Service providers may include physical, speech–language or occupational therapists; behavioral specialists/BCBAs; paras/behavior technicians; and classroom teachers in special education classrooms. These IEP service providers write updates on a student’s progress, but they do not always include details about what they have worked on or what strategies, teaching techniques or rewards systems work best for the student.
When families are aware a service provider is leaving or that a student is transitioning to a new team, they can ask the service provider to write a more detailed transition note in the IEP and/or connect with the new service provider. If a family does not have an opportunity to do this before a transition, they can still share with the new team any specifics the old provider told them in updates, progress notes or report cards.
Planning for Good Communication With a New IEP Team
It can also set families and school teams up for success to be on the same page about communication. What information is communicated and how is usually different between different teachers and is rarely written into an IEP.
Families should let the new IEP team know if they want to be immediately contacted when specific behaviors or medical incidents happen at school or if they want to receive prompt updates about certain information or changes. They can share this information in an email to the new team/team member or at a transition IEP meeting before or shortly after a major transition happens. Some common examples include: Does the family want to know when a new staff member begins working with the student? Are there medical conditions that make it important to know about toileting behavior or food consumption at school?
Families should also tell the new IEP team how best to communicate with them for both more urgent issues and with less urgent updates. There is a balance to this, since school staff may have limited capacity for significant daily communication, but sharing what has or has not worked in the past can help to make transitions to a new team smoother.
Introducing a New Team to a Student Beyond What Is Written in Their IEP
Lastly, parents, guardians, family members and even students themselves are often the best experts on what a student needs and wants from school.
Parents or legal guardians can ask for a transition IEP meeting before or near the start of the student’s transition to a new IEP team or team member. They can use this opportunity to share important details that aren’t always documented in the IEP paperwork. What topics or activities is the student interested in or most engaged by? Are there things the family does at home that help the student when they experience unsafe behaviors? What methods of communicating with the student or providing direction typically work best? What about school seems to challenge the student the most?
Families can ask that the IEP team record this information for future reference in the Parent/Guardian Concerns section near the top of the IEP.These details give the student’s school team a better understanding of the student as a whole person and the reasons behind parts of the IEP. It may help them individualize how they follow the IEP and how they work with the student to better meet the student’s needs from day one.