Ninety calendar days, consent to services: Alaska’s special education laws in 4 AAC 52
Under 4 AAC 52 and AS 14.30.180 to 14.30.350, Alaska carries IDEA into its districts through the Department of Education and Early Development. One count of ninety calendar days from your consent holds evaluation, eligibility, the IEP and the first service day. Start with the dates in your file: the day the school received your written request, the day you signed consent, and the date on the district’s latest notice.
Alaska’s laws, rule by rule
Who the district must serve
4 AAC 52.090(a)Districts owe FAPE to resident children with disabilities “ages 3 — 21, if less than 22 on July 1 of the school year,” correspondence students included.
A correspondence program keeps its district on the hook for evaluation and services.
Eligibility, category by category
4 AAC 52.125(a), 52.130Fourteen categories each carry a written test, early childhood developmental delay reaching age eight, and every child must “require special facilities, equipment, or methods.”
The eligibility group includes a parent and hands you its written, dated statement with the report, free.
One count from consent
4 AAC 52.115(a)Ninety calendar days after your consent the district has evaluated, written the IEP and begun to “provide the child with special education and related services.”
IDEA never dates the first service; Alaska does, so day ninety is a service day.
Short-term objectives in every IEP
4 AAC 52.140(b)(2), (g)Every IEP here carries “a statement of benchmarks or short-term objectives” under its goals, written within thirty days of the eligibility decision.
Federal law dropped objectives for most children; Alaska kept them; a goal with nothing measurable under it invites a question.
Written notice, records, discipline hearings
4 AAC 52.190, 52.510(b)(5), 52.550(l)Written notice follows the federal rule, records reach you inside ten business days, and a disciplinary hearing runs within twenty school days.
Ten business days for records is Alaska’s own count; ask for the file before any meeting.
A twelve-month hearing window
4 AAC 52.500(a), (e); AS 14.30.193(a)Twelve months after the district’s written notice is the last day to request a hearing; a complaint reaches back one year, decided in sixty.
The window is shorter than the federal one, so keep the date on the district’s notice.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“Not later than 90 calendar days after obtaining parental consent for an initial evaluation … the district shall evaluate the referred child, develop an IEP … and provide the child with special education and related services.”
4 AAC 52.115(a)
Services begin inside the same ninety days that hold the evaluation and the meeting.
The deadlines Alaska sets
School days and calendar days count differently, so read the unit in every row.
| What is being counted | By when | How it is counted |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluation, IEP and first services | 90 calendar days | Evaluation, IEP and the first service all sit inside one count that opens on your signed consent.4 AAC 52.115(a) |
| Thirty days, then an IEP | 30 days | Opens on the group’s dated eligibility statement and sits inside the ninety rather than after it.4 AAC 52.140(b)(2) |
| Complaint to the department, decided | 60 days | The department’s acceptance starts the sixty; the violation may be up to one year old.4 AAC 52.500(a), (e) |
| Parent’s due process deadline | 12 months | Runs from the district’s written notice of the disputed decision, whatever was said by phone.AS 14.30.193(a) |
| Resolution meeting, then decision | 15 days, then 45 | Fifteen counted from the district’s receipt of your complaint; forty-five from the end of the resolution period.4 AAC 52.550(f), (k) |
How a child gets an IEP in Alaska
The referral is yours to write
The parent makes the referral here; sign it, date it, hand it yourself to the special education director.
Sign, then the count runs
Your signature on the evaluation consent opens the ninety calendar days, so date it yourself.
The report and the finding
Free of charge, the report and the group’s dated eligibility statement both reach you before the IEP meeting.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
Special Education Dispute Resolution, DEED — Juneau’s dispute resolution desk takes administrative complaints, appoints hearing officers and answers rule questions.
If the school says no
No clock exists in Alaska for answering a referral, so silence is met by asking for the written notice.
- Ask the special education director in writing for the refusal notice, and keep its date.
- An administrative complaint naming a rule and a date goes to Juneau, with a copy to the district.
A refusal arrives in writing under 34 CFR 300.503, naming what was refused and the data behind it.
This page organizes the state’s own words: it does not replace the current rule text, or advice from someone qualified in your state.
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Where this comes from
- Alaska Administrative Code, Title 4, chapter 52The rule quoted above, every section cited.
- Alaska DEED: special educationState office, forms, dispute resolution.
- Notice of Procedural Safeguards: Parental Rights for Special EducationAlaska’s safeguards in full, quoting AS 14.30.193.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.