New Hampshire Child Find: The District's Obligation to Identify Children with Disabilities

Most parents assume that getting a special education evaluation requires them to fight for it. In New Hampshire, the law actually places the burden on the school — not the parent — to identify children who may have a disability. This obligation exists regardless of whether your child attends public school, is homeschooled, or attends a private school in the district. If it isn't being met, that matters for your child.

What Child Find Is

The Child Find obligation comes from federal IDEA and is implemented in New Hampshire under the NHDOE Bureau of Special Education Support. Under IDEA, every state educational agency and every local educational agency (which includes each of New Hampshire's 107 SAUs) must have policies and procedures to ensure that all children with disabilities residing within the district are identified, located, and evaluated.

This applies to:

• All children enrolled in public schools, from birth (through Part C early intervention) through age 21
• Children who are homeschooled
• Children who attend private schools within the geographic district
• Highly mobile children, including those experiencing homelessness
• Migrant children
• Children who may be eligible for special education but who are advancing from grade to grade and appearing to succeed — the district cannot assume that progress means no disability is present

The obligation is proactive. A district cannot wait for parents to ask. If a teacher notices a student struggling in ways consistent with a disability, if a school psychologist's screening data suggests a concern, if a student's grades and classroom behavior suggest an unmet need — the district has an affirmative duty to investigate and potentially refer.

What Child Find Does NOT Mean

Child Find creates an obligation to identify and evaluate. It does not automatically result in an IEP. The process begins with identification and referral, continues through evaluation, and only results in services if the student is found eligible.

Child Find also does not mean the district can conduct an evaluation without your consent. Once the district has identified a child as potentially having a disability, they must notify the parents, provide the Procedural Safeguards notice, and obtain written consent before conducting any evaluation. You retain full consent rights throughout the process.

When Child Find Applies to Homeschooled Students

This is the area that surprises the most New Hampshire parents. If your child is homeschooled in a given town, the SAU that covers that town has a Child Find obligation toward your child. The district must have policies and procedures to identify homeschooled children who may have disabilities — and they must attempt to make contact.

However — and this is critical — Child Find does not obligate the district to provide your homeschooled child with an IEP or with the same level of services available to public school students. Once a homeschooled child is identified as having a disability, the district may offer what's called a "services plan" (not an IEP) using federal funds allocated for parentally placed private school students. These services are discretionary and proportional — the district is not required to provide FAPE to your homeschooled child. FAPE is a right only for children enrolled in public school.

Under New Hampshire Education Freedom Account rules, families who receive EFA funds to pay for private or home education are operating outside the public school FAPE framework entirely. The Child Find obligation still exists, but the service obligation does not automatically follow.

If you want your homeschooled child to receive an IEP with full FAPE protections, the child must enroll in the public school system.

When Child Find Is Failing

Child Find failures are among the most common procedural violations in special education. They typically occur when:

Teachers don't refer students who are clearly struggling. This often happens because teachers don't want to create conflict, or because they believe the student just needs more time, or because the district's culture discourages referrals due to budget concerns. A student with undiagnosed dyslexia who is passed from grade to grade with accommodations but no evaluation is a Child Find failure waiting to be documented.

Progress masks the disability. Students with high cognitive ability and a learning disability sometimes compensate sufficiently that their grades appear adequate. The district fails to identify them because test scores don't trigger concern. IDEA explicitly addresses this: advancement from grade to grade does not mean Child Find doesn't apply.

The district uses RTI as a gating mechanism. As described in the RTI article, some districts cycle students through Response to Intervention tiers indefinitely rather than referring them for evaluation — even when the data clearly shows the student is not making adequate progress with intensive intervention.

Private school students fall through the gap. A student attending a private school within the district's geographic boundaries has some Child Find protections, but the district must proactively consult with private schools — and private schools may not be communicating well with the SAU about students who are struggling.

What Parents Can Do

If you believe your child has a disability and the district hasn't referred them: You do not need to wait for the district's Child Find process to work. Submit a written referral requesting a special education evaluation. Addressing it to the Director of Special Education by name, by letter or email, creates a timestamped record and triggers the 15-business-day response deadline under Ed 1106.

If the district declines to evaluate after your written request: Request a Written Prior Notice (required by Ed 1109) documenting their specific reasons for declining and what data they relied on. A vague response that the child appears to be doing adequately is not sufficient — under Child Find, the standard is whether a disability is suspected, not whether grades are passing.

If you believe the district has been failing to identify a child with an obvious disability for an extended period: This may be a Child Find violation you can address through a state complaint filed with the NHDOE Bureau of Special Education Support. State complaints about Child Find violations can result in the district being required to conduct an evaluation and potentially compensate for the delay in services.

Child Find and Early Childhood

For children from birth through age two, the Child Find obligation is administered through New Hampshire's Family Centered Early Supports and Services (FCESS) — a Part C program operated by the Department of Health and Human Services, not the Department of Education.

For children from age three onward, the obligation shifts to the local SAU. The transition from Part C (FCESS) to Part B (school district services) is itself a Child Find moment — the district is required to conduct an evaluation and determine eligibility before the child's third birthday so services can begin without a gap. This transition is frequently mismanaged in New Hampshire, with districts either conducting rushed evaluations or allowing gaps in service between the child's third birthday and the IEP implementation date.

If your child is approaching their third birthday and receiving Early Supports and Services, request a meeting with the local SAU's special education director at least six months before the birthday. Do not wait for the district to initiate contact — they are supposed to, but timelines are frequently compressed.

The New Hampshire IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a written referral template for requesting a special education evaluation — the specific language that creates a documented request the district must formally respond to within 15 business days.

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