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SDLA Compliance Resource

Preserve Access to Required Assistive Technology When a Student Changes LEAs

A device-and-service handoff that keeps communication, curriculum, mobility, sensory access, and independence available while ownership and replacement arrangements are resolved.

  • Special Education
  • Assistive Technology
  • Transfer
Date(s)At enrollment/transfer without interruption; continue the prior device or a comparable device until an alternative arrangement supports the receiving LEA's program
Applies toStudents with disabilities who require an assistive technology device and change enrollment to another LEA

In Plain Language: The receiving and sending LEAs must prevent the transfer from taking away a device the student needs. Continued access may involve transferring the existing device, a comparable temporary device, licenses, settings, accessories, training, repair information, and assistive-technology services.

Why this matters

For some students, technology is how they communicate, read, write, hear, see, move, regulate access, or participate. A missing charger, license, vocabulary file, mounting system, or trained adult can make the device functionally unavailable.

Joint ownership

Sending owner: case manager/AT lead and property custodian. Receiving owner: special education administrator/AT lead. Partners: student, parent, teachers, SLP, OT/PT, vision/hearing specialists, IT, vendor, and transportation.

From a transfer notice to continued assistive technology: the SDLA ITO workflow

A device the student needs should not disappear when the student changes LEAs. This SDLA ITO (Input, Transformation, Output) graphic shows how the IEP and device records, and the sending and receiving staff become the inventory, the handoff agreement, the functional-use verification, and the final arrangement.

SDLA ITO: eleven steps from the IEP and device records, and the sending and receiving staff, through inventory, the LEA handoff, data transfer, and training, to the inventory, the handoff agreement, the functional-use verification, and the final arrangement.
Read down each column, then move to the next: Input identifies what to collect; Transformation covers inventory, the LEA handoff, data transfer, and training; Output covers the inventory, the handoff agreement, the functional-use verification, and the final arrangement. Continue the prior device or a genuinely comparable one until another arrangement supports the receiving program.

Open the full-size workflow graphic

Operational workflow

  1. At transfer notice, inventory every required device, accessory, license, configuration, vocabulary/data file, repair status, and supporting service.
  2. Sending and receiving staff agree on immediate access: transfer the device or provide a genuinely comparable interim option.
  3. Securely transfer settings/data and train receiving staff, student, and family; verify classroom, home, transportation, and activity use described by the IEP.
  4. Document ownership/loan, maintenance, insurance, return/replacement, and the receiving team's longer-term IEP determination.

Continuity chain

Device and accessories
Software, settings, and student data
Training and AT services
Use across classes, home, transport, and activities
Maintenance and replacement ownership

Evidence to retain

  • IEP/AT assessment and required-use description
  • Device/accessory/license inventory
  • LEA handoff and loan/ownership agreement
  • Training and functional-use verification
  • Repair, replacement, data-transfer, and final arrangement record

Official guidance and help

Source review completed August 30, 2026. Verify current federal and California law, court or OAH instructions, local SELPA procedures, individual circumstances, and the exact service and records state before acting.