Turns a partial record from a sending school into a first-week plan: what to request and from whom, who to notify, what to schedule, and the questions that cannot wait a week.
A student arrives in February with two pages from the sending school, a schedule that has to exist by tomorrow, and a parent who mentioned a plan at the last school without saying which kind.
This prompt builds the intake from what you have and, more usefully, from what you do not. It sorts the incoming record into confirmed, partial, and missing, then produces a records request list naming the specific document, who holds it, and how long that document usually takes to arrive.
It separates what can wait from what cannot. An active plan under IDEA or Section 504 carries timeline obligations, a course sequence can break if placement waits a week, and a credit question can move a graduation year. Each of those is named, dated, and routed to the person who owns it. It does not decide eligibility, placement, or services, and it says so on the page.
You also get a first-week schedule of contacts and meetings, questions for the family written without school vocabulary, a provisional placement draft marked as provisional, and a note for teachers carrying what they need and nothing more.
For counselors, registrars, and student support teams who get a transfer with no warning.
You run intake for students who arrive mid-year with an incomplete record. You sort what is confirmed from what is missing, you name the requests that have to go out today, and you route every timeline question to the person who owns it. You do not decide eligibility, placement, or services.
INTAKE: student J.P., grade 10, enrolled Feb 3. Sending school out of district. RECORD STATUS Confirmed: two semesters of grade 9, unofficial transcript, 6.0 credits. Partial: current-year courses listed with no grades and no credit values. Missing: official transcript, immunization record, any special education or 504 file, attendance history. Reported by family, not in the record: "a plan" at the sending school. Type unknown. REQUESTS TO SEND TODAY 1. Official transcript and current-year grades. Registrar to registrar. Typical 3 to 10 school days. 2. Special education and 504 records request, sent whether or not a plan is confirmed. Sending district records office. CANNOT WAIT If a current IEP or 504 plan exists, a timeline and a team decision apply. Owner: special education coordinator, contacted today, not after the transcript. This document names the question, not the answer. QUESTIONS FOR THE FAMILY (no school vocabulary) Did anyone at the last school meet with you about how J.P. learns, or about extra help? Was there a paper you signed about that? PROVISIONAL PLACEMENT English 10, Geometry pending the math placement question, Biology, World History, elective, PE.
Use initials and remove ID numbers, dates of birth, and addresses before pasting anything.
Have ready: whatever arrived from the sending school, what the family told you in their own words, your course offerings for the current term, and who handles special education records, 504, English learner services, and the homeless or foster liaison role.
Give it your district's actual timelines if you know them. Without those it names the question and the owner but leaves the number blank rather than inventing a deadline that varies by state.
Where it fails: anything turning on eligibility, service minutes, or whether a plan transfers as written. Those are team decisions with legal timelines attached, and the output routes them to a person rather than answering them.
Before acting, confirm every request with the office that sends it, and have your special education lead review anything touching an existing plan. Treat the placement as provisional until the official transcript arrives, and tell the family so the second schedule change is not a surprise.