Withdrawing an IEP Student from Vermont Public School: The Legal Sequence

Withdrawing a child with an active IEP from Vermont public school involves more steps than a standard withdrawal — and the school's special education team has no authority to delay or block that process. What they can do, if you don't handle the paperwork correctly, is create a situation where your child is technically still enrolled in special education services after you've begun home study. Here is how to do this cleanly.

The Standard Vermont Withdrawal Sequence Still Applies

Before any IEP-specific steps, the standard Vermont withdrawal sequence governs. You must:

1. File a Notice of Intent with the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE)
2. Wait for the AOE's written acknowledgment, due within 10 business days after receipt of a complete notice
3. Only after receiving acknowledgment — send a withdrawal letter to the school principal via Certified Mail with Return Receipt Requested

This sequence is non-negotiable regardless of whether your child has an IEP, a 504 plan, a disability diagnosis, or no diagnosis at all. Families with IEP students sometimes assume the special education team can expedite things or that an IEP meeting is required before withdrawal. Neither is true. The IEP does not give the school authority to hold up your withdrawal. Your legal right to home study exists independently of any service agreement the school has with your family.

Do not pull your child from school before the AOE issues its acknowledgment letter. For IEP families, attendance and special-education procedures can both be implicated by unexcused absences. The IEP does not make the attendance requirement disappear.

Step One: Revoking Consent for Special Education Services

When you withdraw an IEP student to home study, you must formally revoke consent for special education services. Under IDEA and Vermont's special education regulations, parents initially provide consent for evaluation and for service delivery — and that consent can be revoked at any time.

The revocation is typically done in writing. Send a letter to the special education director or director of pupil services at your child's school stating clearly that you are revoking consent for all special education services. Address it to the principal as well.

Include:

• Your child's full name and date of birth
• A clear statement that you are revoking consent for all special education services under IDEA
• The effective date of revocation
• Your signature and contact information

Once the school receives your revocation of consent, they must stop providing special education services. They cannot unilaterally continue services after consent is revoked. Keep the written revocation with your withdrawal records.

Timing: Send the revocation of consent at the same time as your school withdrawal letter, after you have the AOE acknowledgment. Do not send it before the AOE acknowledgment — if you revoke consent and pull your child before the home study program is legally active, you have a gap in enrollment status.

The IEP After Withdrawal

Once your child leaves Vermont public school, the IEP has no legal force over your home study program. Vermont does not maintain shadow IEPs for home study students. You are not required to implement the IEP's goals, use the IEP's services, or follow the IEP's accommodations.

However, keep the complete IEP document permanently. It serves two critical functions in your home study records:

Establishing a baseline. The IEP documents your child's performance levels and goals as of the withdrawal date. If your year-end home study assessment shows progress beyond those levels, you have objective evidence of growth. That trajectory matters in any context where your child's education is scrutinized — custody disputes, re-enrollment conversations, college disability services.

Supporting future transitions. If your child re-enrolls in Vermont public school at any point, the school is required to convene an IEP team meeting to determine current eligibility and services. Your retained IEP, combined with your home study assessment records, gives you documentation to ensure that any new IEP reflects where your child actually is — not where they were years ago.

The IPE Form: When You Need It

The Independent Professional Evidence (IPE) form is a Vermont AOE requirement, not an IEP requirement. It comes into play in a specific situation:

You need disability evidence if your child has a documented disability and has not previously been enrolled in a Vermont public school or a Vermont Home Study program. IPE Form B is one route; current AOE guidance also identifies a Vermont public-school report card, IEP, or 504 Plan as alternatives.

If your child was already enrolled in your local Vermont public school or Vermont Home Study program, current AOE guidance identifies a Vermont public-school report card, IEP, or 504 Plan as accepted alternatives to IPE Form B. Confirm which document applies to your child's record.

Where families get tripped up: if your child was evaluated and diagnosed but was never previously enrolled in a Vermont public school or Vermont Home Study program, you may still need disability evidence. It must be completed by an appropriate licensed independent professional and address the documented disability, its impact on educational progress, and recommended accommodations, modifications, adaptations, or services. IPE Form B is one route; the Vermont public-school report card, IEP, or 504 Plan alternatives may be accepted under current AOE guidance. Provide the evidence with the Notice of Intent when required.

Contact the AOE's Home Study team directly if you're uncertain whether your child's existing documentation satisfies the IPE requirement. It's a quick question and prevents delays.

Withdrawing a Student with a 504 Plan

A 504 Plan is separate from an IEP. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act applies to public schools and their accommodation process. When you withdraw your child to Home Study, use the district's separate 504 closure process; the IEP consent-revocation addendum does not replace it.

Send written notice to both the principal and the 504 coordinator stating that your child is withdrawing from public school enrollment as of a specific date, and ask the district to complete its 504 closure process. This closes the loop in the school's records and removes ambiguity about whether the plan is still active.

As with IEP records, keep the 504 plan documentation. The accommodations it specifies — extended time, preferential seating, reduced assignment length, oral testing options — reflect what your child needs. Those same accommodations can inform how you structure your home study program and what you document in your year-end assessment.

Curriculum Adaptations in Your MCOS

Under 16 V.S.A. § 166b, if your child has a documented disability, your Notice of Intent attestation must state that your Minimum Course of Study includes necessary adaptations to accommodate that disability. You are not submitting the adapted MCOS to the AOE — you are attesting that one exists.

Document the adaptations concretely. For ADHD: shorter work sessions, movement breaks, oral responses in place of written, project-based work in place of timed tests. For autism: predictable schedule structures, sensory considerations in learning environment, visual supports. For dyslexia: structured literacy approach, orton-gillingham methods, accommodation for written output that substitutes oral narration.

The adapted MCOS, combined with work samples showing how the child performed under those accommodations, is what makes your year-end assessment defensible. It is also the documentation you would produce in any legal context — custody dispute, DCF inquiry — where someone questions whether you're meeting your child's educational needs.

Getting the Records You Need

When you send your withdrawal letter to the school, explicitly request a complete copy of your child's records including:

• All IEP documents and evaluation reports (psychological evaluations, speech assessments, OT/PT reports)
• 504 plan documentation
• Complete special education service records and progress notes
• Attendance history
• Academic records and any standardized test scores
• Records of any disciplinary proceedings

Request copies before withdrawal rather than assuming records transfer automatically. Ask the district about its records-release process and timing. These records are the foundation of your child's Home Study documentation system.

The sequence, the revocation letter, the records request, and the adapted MCOS attestation are all handled in the Vermont Legal Withdrawal Blueprint, which includes a withdrawal letter template with an IEP revocation addendum, a records request form, and guidance for the AOE enrollment process — built specifically around Vermont's current law and the 10-day waiting period that every family with a special-needs child needs to navigate carefully.

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