Reference Source

19 records

How long does my school district have to finish my child's special education evaluation after I sign consent, in my state?

19 records, one fact each. Every value is transcribed from the source that states it and carries the sentence it was taken from: 20 sources across 20 sites, last checked 2026-08-31, due for re-check by 2027-04-28. Every record is listed below, each linking the page its value came from.

Records19
Sources20
Verified
Review by
LicenceState statutes and regulations plus the federal IDEA regulation; statutory deadlines are facts and are not copyrightable, quoted with citation to the publishing authority.

1 record where two or more sources state different values. Both sides are reproduced on the record page, each with its own source and quote.

About this data

The legal deadline for completing an initial special education evaluation under the IDEA, per state: how many days, whether those are calendar, school or business days, what event starts the clock, the separate deadline for the eligibility meeting or the first IEP, and how school vacations are counted. Federal 34 CFR 300.301(c)(1) says 60 days from parental consent unless the state sets its own timeframe — and most states do. Minnesota allows 30 school days, Texas 45 school days, Illinois 60 school days, Pennsylvania 60 calendar days excluding the summer, Virginia 65 business days measured from the referral rather than from consent, and Washington moved to 35 school days on 11 June 2026. Answers 'how long does the school have to evaluate my child in [state]' and 'is the 60-day rule calendar days or school days here', which are the questions parents ask when a district has gone quiet.

The data

StateEvaluation deadlineDay typeClock starts onDiffers from federal 60 daysStatute or ruleSchool break treatment
Arizonawithin sixty days after receiving parental consent for the evaluationcalendar daysreceiving parental consent for the evaluationsame15-766
Californiawithin a total time not to exceed 60 dayscalendar daysthe date of receipt of the parent’s written consent for assessmentsame56344not counting days between the pupil’s regular school sessions, terms, or days of school vacation in excess of five schooldays
Federal default (IDEA)within 60 days of receiving parental consentcalendar daysreceiving parental consent for the evaluation34 CFR 300.301
Illinoiswithin 60 school days from the date of written parental consentschool daysthe date of written parental consentdifferent unit105 ILCS 5/14-8.02
IowaMust be conducted within 60 calendar days of receiving parental consent for the evaluationcalendar daysreceiving parental consent for the evaluationsame281—41.301
Massachusettsprovide or arrange for the evaluation of the student by a multidisciplinary team within 30 school daysschool daysUpon consent of a parentdifferent unit603 CMR, § 28.04
Minnesotawithin a reasonable time not to exceed 30 school daysschool daysthe date the district receives parental permission to conduct the evaluationdifferent unit3525.2550
Nevadait shall conduct the initial evaluation within: (a) Forty-five school days after the parent provides informed written consentschool daysthe parent provides informed written consentdifferent unitNAC 388.337
New Hampshireshall be completed within 60 days after receipt of parental consent to evaluatecalendar daysreceipt of parental consent to evaluatesameEd 1107.01
New Jerseythe evaluation, determination of eligibility for services under this chapter, and, if eligible, development and implementation of the student’s IEP shall be completed within 90 calendar dayscalendar daysAfter parental consent for initial evaluation of a preschool age or school age student has been receivedlongerN.J.A.C. 6A:14
New MexicoThe initial evaluation and written evaluation report shall be completed within 60 calendar days of receiving parental consent for evaluation.calendar daysreceiving parental consent for evaluationsame6.31.2.10 NMAC
OhioMust be conducted within sixty days of receiving parental consent for the evaluationcalendar daysreceiving parental consent for the evaluationsameRule 3301-51-06
Pennsylvaniano later than 60-calendar days after the agency receives written parental consent for evaluationcalendar daysthe agency receives written parental consent for evaluationsame22 Pa. Code § 14.123the calendar days from the day after the last day of the spring school term up to and including the day before the first day of the subsequent fall school term will not be counted
Rhode IslandWithin sixty (60) calendar days of receipt of parental consent to an initial evaluationcalendar daysreceipt of parental consent to an initial evaluationsame200-RICR-20-30-6
Tennesseewithin forty (40) school daysschool daysthe local education agency’s receipt of informed parental consent for an initial evaluationdifferent unit0520-1-9-.10
Texasnot later than the 45th school dayschool daysreceives written consent for the evaluation, signed by the student's parent or legal guardiandifferent unitTX Educ Code § 29.004if a student has been absent from school during that period on three or more days, that period must be extended by a number of school days equal to the number of school days during that period on which the student has been absent
Virginiaall evaluations are completed and that decisions about eligibility are made within 65 business daysbusiness daysthe receipt of the referral by the special education administrator or designeedifferent start event8VAC20-81-60
Washingtonsources differThirty-five school days after the date written consent for an evaluation has been provided to the school district by the parentschool daysthe date written consent for an evaluation has been provided to the school district by the parentdifferent unitWAC 392-172A-03005
Wisconsindetermine if a child is a child with a disability within 60 dayscalendar daysthe local educational agency receives parental consent for the evaluation of the childsame115.78

Where this came from

Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 20 sources this dataset was assembled from.

Machine-readable

From your own code

Same records, same quotes, without scraping the page: refsource is on PyPI and npm. Each value comes back carrying the URL it was read from and the sentence on that page that states it — .source and .quote sit on the value itself rather than in a side channel, so the checking step is available instead of skipped.

pip install refsource
refsource lookup special-education-evaluation-timelines-by-state state=Arizona

npx -y refsource lookup special-education-evaluation-timelines-by-state state=Arizona

Set your AI assistant up to use this

Two files and no account. Put this in .mcp.json at the root of your project — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code and Codex all read that file — and your assistant can look this dataset up instead of recalling it. The server is remote, keyless and read-only.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "referencesource": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://referencesource.org/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Add to Cursor · or, on the command line: claude mcp add --transport http referencesource https://referencesource.org/mcp --scope project

Then one line in the project's CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, so the assistant knows when to reach for it:

When a question needs "Special education initial evaluation deadlines by state — days, day type, and what starts the clock", call the referencesource MCP server at https://referencesource.org/mcp (tool `search_records`, dataset_slug `special-education-evaluation-timelines-by-state`) instead of answering from memory — every record it returns carries its source URL and a verbatim quote from that page.

What each tool does, and the servers built over single registers: Connect your AI assistant.

19 records. last verified against source . due for re-check by .

Licence. State statutes and regulations plus the federal IDEA regulation; statutory deadlines are facts and are not copyrightable, quoted with citation to the publishing authority.