IEP Not Being Followed in New Hampshire: What to Do When the School Violates Your Child's Plan

Your child has a signed IEP. The meeting happened, the plan was agreed to, and signatures were collected. Then the school year starts — and something is wrong. The specialized reading instruction isn't happening. The aide isn't in the classroom. The speech therapy minutes are being cut short. The accommodations written into the plan aren't showing up in the classroom.

A signed IEP is a legally binding document in New Hampshire. Failure to implement it is not a misunderstanding or an inconvenience — it's a violation of federal IDEA and state law. And unlike disputes over what should be in an IEP, implementation failures are among the most straightforward cases to pursue, because the standard is clear: does the student's actual education match what the IEP says?

The Difference Between Disagreeing With an IEP and an IEP Not Being Followed

These are two different problems that require different approaches.

If you believe the IEP itself is inadequate — the goals are too low, the services aren't sufficient, the placement is wrong — that's a dispute about the content of the plan. The remedy involves requesting revisions, potentially seeking an independent evaluation, and pursuing dispute resolution through the Neutral Conference, mediation, or due process.

If the IEP is signed and reasonable but the school simply isn't delivering what's written in it, that's an implementation violation. The district agreed to a plan and isn't following through. That's a compliance issue, and it opens a faster, more direct path to accountability.

How to Identify and Document the Violation

Start by getting specific. "The school isn't following the IEP" is a starting point, not an argument. You need to document exactly what the IEP requires and exactly what is or isn't happening.

Pull the IEP and read it in detail. Look at every service: type, frequency, duration, provider, and setting. For example: "Speech-language therapy: 60 minutes per week, individual sessions, with licensed SLP." That's the baseline.

Request service logs. In writing, ask the special education coordinator for documentation of service delivery: dates, duration, and provider for every related service listed in the IEP over the past grading period. This is information the district is required to maintain. If they can't produce it, that absence of documentation is itself significant.

Communicate in writing. Stop using phone calls to raise concerns about IEP implementation. Send email. If the response is "we're working on it" or "there was a scheduling issue," document that response. The goal is to create a paper trail that proves you raised the concern and when.

Track it yourself. Keep a log of every day your child comes home and reports something was skipped or shortened. Note whether specialists were absent and whether substitutes provided services. Note when accommodations were not made. This doesn't have to be elaborate — a dated note in a shared document is enough.

Why the District Is Often Violating the IEP

In New Hampshire, the most common reasons IEPs go unimplemented have less to do with bad intent and more to do with structural problems:

Staffing shortages. Many New Hampshire SAUs — particularly in rural areas — rely on contracted specialists for speech, OT, and reading support. When a contracted provider is sick, leaves mid-year, or is shared across multiple buildings, services slip. Under Ed 1113, paraprofessionals cannot substitute for certified specialists. But that rule is often violated under staffing pressure.

Scheduling conflicts. A reading specialist who is responsible for 20 students may be forced to reschedule, combine, or shorten sessions. The IEP doesn't flex to accommodate scheduling — the schedule is supposed to accommodate the IEP.

Poor internal communication. General education teachers are often not told what IEP accommodations apply in their classrooms. If the IEP says "extended time on all written assessments" but the classroom teacher wasn't informed, the accommodation doesn't happen.

Deliberate reduction without notice. Sometimes a district quietly reduces service delivery without formally amending the IEP — because formally reducing services would require a Written Prior Notice, which puts the decision on record.

Your Options When the IEP Isn't Being Followed

Write a formal notice to the special education director. Reference the IEP provisions that are not being implemented, state the dates on which you have observed or been informed of the failures, and request a written response explaining how and when the district will come into compliance. Keep this professional and factual — this letter is evidence.

Request an IEP team meeting. You can convene the team at any time to address implementation concerns. Ask specifically that the meeting address how services will be delivered going forward and request Written Prior Notice if the district proposes any change to how the plan is implemented.

File a state complaint. This is the most efficient remedy when an IEP is not being implemented. A state complaint to the NHDOE's Dispute Resolution Office triggers an investigation. The NHDOE will review the IEP, the service logs, and the district's response to your concerns. If non-compliance is substantiated, the state issues a Corrective Action Plan — which can include required service delivery logs, staff training, and compensatory education for services the student missed.

In a recent substantiated complaint (Case 25-19-S), a New Hampshire district was found to have failed to deliver services in the specialized setting required by the IEP. The district could not produce documentation proving services were actually delivered as written. The corrective action required revised policies, staff retraining, and a determination of compensatory education.

Request compensatory education. If services were missed over a significant period, your child may be entitled to compensatory education — additional services provided to make up for what was lost during the period of non-compliance. This is an equitable remedy intended to put the student where they would have been had the IEP been properly implemented.

What Compensatory Education Looks Like

Compensatory education is not a dollar-for-dollar accounting. It's determined based on what's needed to place the student back in the educational position they would have been in. That might mean:

• Additional speech therapy sessions over the following school year
• Summer services the student wouldn't otherwise have received
• Reimbursement for private services the family obtained during the period of non-compliance

Document the period of non-compliance carefully. The more precisely you can establish when services lapsed and for how long, the stronger the compensatory education argument.

A Note on Tone and Strategy

Raising an IEP implementation issue effectively requires staying focused on facts and legal standards, not frustration. A letter that says "my child is not receiving the services mandated in the legally binding IEP, signed on [date], specifically Section 5 specifying 60 minutes per week of individual speech therapy delivered by a licensed SLP" carries more weight than "you're not doing what you promised."

The New Hampshire IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook includes templates for formal implementation notices, state complaint filings, and compensatory education requests — all calibrated to New Hampshire's specific rules and framed around the Ed 1100 provisions that govern service delivery. Getting the language right the first time usually produces a faster response than escalating through multiple rounds of informal conversation.

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