Schedule A Letter Template
A blank template for your provider to complete and sign — with the Department of Labor list of who may write it, and the detail you are not required to disclose.
Schedule A letter template — Word (.docx)
Free, no email, no account. Two blocks: instructions you delete, and the letter your provider completes on their own letterhead.
Download the templateYou do not write this letter yourself. A Schedule A letter is third-party proof of disability. Give the template to a qualified professional, who completes and signs it. A letter an applicant wrote about themselves is not valid documentation.
The template
This is the full text of the file, so you can read it or copy it without downloading anything. The blanks are deliberate: every substantive value is filled in by the professional who signs it.
BEFORE YOU USE THIS TEMPLATE — READ THIS
This is a blank template. You do not write or sign this letter yourself. Give it to a qualified professional, who completes and signs it on their own letterhead.
Per the U.S. Department of Labor, a Schedule A letter may be signed by a licensed medical professional, such as a primary care physician, family physician, psychologist, psychiatrist, audiologist, or other specialists; a certified rehabilitation professional; or a federal, state, District of Columbia, or U.S. territory agency that issues or provides disability benefits.
The letter does not need to include your specific disability, medical history, treatment, or need for accommodation. Delete this instruction block before sending the template to your provider.
[______________________________________________]
Practice or agency letterhead — name, address, phone
Date: ______________________________
To Whom It May Concern:
This letter confirms that __________________________________ (applicant name) is an individual with a
______ intellectual disability ______ severe physical disability ______ psychiatric disability
Check one. No diagnosis, medical history, or treatment detail is required.
and is therefore eligible to be appointed to a federal position under Schedule A, 5 CFR 213.3102(u).
Signed:
Signature: ____________________________________________
Printed name: ________________________________________
Professional title or credential: ____________________________
License, certification, or agency number: ______________________
Phone: ________________________ Email: ________________________
This template must be completed and signed by a qualified professional as described above. An applicant may not complete or sign it on their own behalf. Template provided free by DraftFederalResume.com, which is a private company and is not affiliated with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management or USAJOBS.gov.
Who may write and sign it
The Department of Labor names three categories of signer. Quoted rather than paraphrased, because the paraphrases in circulation are narrower than the rule and send people to a specialist they do not need:
“licensed medical professional, such as a primary care physician, family physician, psychologist, psychiatrist, audiologist, or other specialists; certified rehabilitation professional; or federal, state, District of Columbia, or U.S. territory agency that issues or provides disability benefits”
U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy, “How to Obtain a Schedule A Letter”
Two practical consequences. Your existing primary care physician can sign it — you do not need a specialist assessment. And if a federal, state, District of Columbia, or territory agency already issues you disability benefits, that agency can provide the documentation, which is often faster and cheaper than a clinic appointment.
What it does not need to say
This is where applicants routinely give away more than the rule asks for. The Department of Labor is explicit:
“The Schedule A letter does not need to include your specific disability, medical history, treatment, or need for accommodation.”
U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy
The EEOC says the same thing in its own guidance for applicants:
“It does NOT need to detail your specific disability, medical history or need for accommodation.”
EEOC, “The ABCs of Schedule A”
So the letter has two jobs: establish that you are a person with an intellectual disability, a severe physical disability, or a psychiatric disability, and state that you are eligible to be hired under Schedule A. A letter naming your diagnosis is not more persuasive. It just discloses medical information you were never required to hand over, to people who did not need it.
Requesting an accommodation is a separate process from establishing Schedule A eligibility. Keep it out of this letter.
There is no rating percentage
The most common reason people wrongly rule themselves out. Neither 5 CFR § 213.3102(u) nor the Department of Labor guidance states a disability rating threshold, because Schedule A is not built on ratings at all — it is built on the three disability categories and a qualified professional’s judgment.
The 30 percent figure people attach to this comes from a different regulation. The authority is 5 U.S.C. 3112, and 5 CFR § 316.302(b)(4) applies it to noncompetitive term appointments for “veterans with compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more.” That authority is veteran-specific and does use a percentage. Schedule A is neither.
Schedule A is not a veterans’ authority
Schedule A is open to anyone who meets the disability criteria. It is not limited to veterans, and using it does not require any military service. Plenty of people arrive here from a veteran context and assume the opposite.
If you are a veteran with a service-connected disability you may be eligible under Schedule A and under the veteran-specific authorities, which are assessed separately and documented differently. It is worth knowing every federal hiring authority you qualify for before you pick one, and worth reading what protected veteran status actually means if a form has asked you about it.
One technical note for completeness, because it trips people up: Schedule A positions appear on the exclusion list in 5 CFR § 302.101(c)(11), so the appointment procedures in part 302 do not attach to them. That is a statement about procedure, not about your eligibility, and it does not affect anything in this letter.
How to get your letter
- Download the template and delete the instruction block at the top — it is addressed to you, not to your provider.
- Decide who signs. Your existing primary care physician, a psychologist or psychiatrist, a certified rehabilitation professional, or an agency that already issues your disability benefits are all acceptable.
- Hand them the template. Ask them to complete it on their own letterhead, check the applicable category, and sign with their credential.
- Check nothing extra crept in. If a diagnosis, treatment history, or accommodation request has been added, ask for it to be removed — none of it is required.
- Upload it with your application as proof of disability, and keep the original. Agencies vary on how recent they want the letter, so ask the point of contact on the announcement if yours is old.
Sources
5 of 5 references are official U.S. government publications. Pay tables and hiring rules change — each link shows when we last verified it.
- [1]How to Obtain a Schedule A Letter — Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor. Verified .
- [2]The ABCs of Schedule A: Tips for Applicants with Disabilities Getting Federal Jobs — U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Verified .
- [3]5 CFR § 213.3102(u) — Appointment of persons with intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities — Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, National Archives. Verified .
- [4]5 CFR § 316.302(b)(4) — Selection of term employees (30-percent disabled veterans) — Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, National Archives. Verified .
- [5]5 CFR § 302.101 — Positions covered by regulations — Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, National Archives. Verified .