In most states, the rights you have exercised on your child's behalf since preschool transfer to your child at the age of majority. Federal law requires the school to tell you both a year ahead, and that year is the whole opportunity.
A parent shows up to the spring IEP meeting the way she has for eleven years, and the case manager says the student now signs the consent forms. The parent has not been told this was coming, the student has never been asked to make an education decision, and the meeting proceeds with everyone improvising.
Federal law sets out both the transfer itself and the notice families are owed before it happens, and the notice is supposed to arrive a year in advance for exactly this reason.
Under 34 C.F.R. § 300.520(a), a state may provide that when a child with a disability reaches the age of majority under the state law that applies to all children, several things happen at once. The public agency must give any notice required under Part B to both the student and the parents. All other rights that Part B gives parents transfer to the student. The agency must notify the student and the parents that the transfer has occurred.
A State may provide that, when a child with a disability reaches the age of majority under State law that applies to all children (except for a child with a disability who has been determined to be incompetent under State law)— (1)(i) The public agency must provide any notice required by this part to both the child and the parents; and (ii) All rights accorded to parents under Part B of the Act transfer to the child;
34 C.F.R. § 300.520(a)(1)
Read the opening words carefully, because the regulation says a state may provide for this rather than requiring it. Whether rights transfer, and at what age, comes from your own state's law, so your procedural safeguards notice and your state education agency's guidance are the documents that tell you what happens where you live. Ask your district for both in writing.
Two limits sit inside the same paragraph. The transfer does not reach a student who has been determined incompetent under state law. Under § 300.520(a)(2), rights transfer to students who are incarcerated in an adult or juvenile state or local correctional institution, which means a young person in custody holds the education rights personally.
The requirement that makes this manageable lives in the IEP content rules rather than in the safeguards. Under 34 C.F.R. § 300.320(c), beginning not later than one year before the student reaches the age of majority under state law, the IEP must include a statement that the student has been informed of the rights under Part B, if any, that will transfer on reaching the age of majority under § 300.520.
That is a document requirement you can check. Open the IEP written the year before your child's birthday and look for the statement. If it is missing, the team owes it. If the statement is present but nobody talked to your child, it is doing paperwork rather than preparation, and you can ask what the team did to inform the student and what it will do this year.
After the transfer, the student is the person who consents to evaluation, agrees or declines to agree to a proposed IEP or placement, requests records, requests an independent educational evaluation, and files for mediation or a due process hearing. The student also becomes the person the district must notify, although § 300.520(a)(1)(i) requires the agency to keep sending required notices to the parents as well.
Continuing to receive notices is not the same as holding decision-making authority. A student who wants a parent in the room can invite the parent and can give written permission for the district to discuss records, which is the mechanism families most often overlook.
Section 300.520(b) addresses the situation where a student has reached the age of majority, has not been determined incompetent, and can be determined under state law not to have the ability to give informed consent about their educational program. In that case the state must establish procedures for appointing the parent, or another appropriate individual if the parent is not available, to represent the student's educational interests throughout the period of eligibility under Part B.
Because those procedures come from state law, ask your district and your state education agency which procedure applies and what documentation it takes, early enough that the answer arrives before the birthday.
Families who handle the transfer well start years ahead, usually around the time transition services enter the IEP. The work is partly practical, since a student who has never chosen a goal or spoken in a meeting will not become a decision maker on a birthday, and partly legal.
Supported decision-making, a power of attorney, and conservatorship or guardianship are three of the arrangements families discuss, and they sit very far apart in how much authority a young adult keeps. Supported decision-making leaves the adult as the decision maker with agreed help, a power of attorney delegates specified authority that the adult can generally revoke, and conservatorship or guardianship removes decision-making authority through a court proceeding. These are options to discuss with a qualified attorney and with your child rather than recommendations, and the choice depends on facts no article can assess.
Build the student's participation in the meantime, because a student who reviews their own goals, states what accommodations help, and hears the transfer explained more than once arrives at the age of majority holding rights they recognize. Reviewing progress data together is a concrete place to start.
This post is general information rather than legal advice, and a special education attorney, a disability rights organization, or your state's Parent Training and Information Center can advise on your state's rules and your family's situation.
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Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. § 300.320 (2017).
Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. § 300.520 (2017).
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq. (2004).
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