Seven calendar days to a referral conference: Arkansas’s special education laws, Part 130 explained
Arkansas writes its special education rules as Part 130 of the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education’s code, layered on IDEA. Its sharpest addition sits before consent: a referral conference within seven calendar days of your written Referral Form. 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.
Arkansas’s laws, rule by rule
Who Part 130 covers
6 CAR 130-208(a), (b)A “child with a disability” here is aged three through the school year of turning twenty-one, with a listed condition that creates the need.
Little Rock’s Special Education Unit enforces it; ages three to five may qualify on delay.
Seven days to a conference
6 CAR 130-404(c)(1)The conference’s decision goes on the “Referral Conference Decision Form,” signed by the principal or a designee and naming everyone present.
No federal rule holds such a meeting; its signed decision is a page to ask for.
Consent, evaluation and the conference
6 CAR 130-606(a)Once testing ends, an “evaluation/programming conference” of professionals and the parent meets within thirty calendar days to decide disability and need.
The report is free; services follow within thirty calendar days of the IEP meeting.
The Notice of Action
6 CAR 130-904(a), (b)One state form carries every proposal or refusal on identification, evaluation, placement or FAPE, naming “each evaluation procedure, assessment, record, or report” behind it.
Box A holds what needs your consent, Box B what does not; check which is ticked.
Conduct removals and corporal punishment
6 CAR 130-1105(a), 130-1109Manifestation is decided by the LEA, you and relevant IEP team members inside ten school days; a second rule bars paddling four groups.
IDEA is silent on paddling; a district here may never strike an autistic, nonverbal, nonambulatory or intellectually disabled child.
The Division’s two dispute tracks
6 CAR 130-1202(a), 130-1003(b), 130-1012Complaints go to the Special Education Unit “for subsequent investigation and resolution within sixty (60) calendar days,” and a hearing request has two years.
The Dispute Resolution Section runs both, and mediation there costs you nothing.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“Within seven (7) calendar days of the date the local educational agency receives the written referral, the local educational agency must schedule a referral conference at a time and place agreed upon by the parent or parents …”
6 CAR 130-403(a)
A promise to look into it is no conference; the district owes an agreed date.
The deadlines Arkansas 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Referral conference scheduled | 7 calendar days | The district’s receipt of the Referral Form is day zero; unanswered notices stretch it to day twenty-one.6 CAR 130-403(a), (d) |
| Testing finished after consent | 60 calendar days | Runs once the district holds your consent form; a child repeatedly kept from testing voids it.6 CAR 130-603(a) |
| Evaluation/programming conference held | 30 calendar days | Starts when the last test is given, so eligibility can be ruled a month after testing.6 CAR 130-606(a)(1) |
| IEP services actually delivered | 30 calendar days | Measured from the IEP meeting unless the IEP writes a later start; summer excepted.6 CAR 130-803(b)(1)(B) |
| Manifestation ruling due | 10 school days | School days only, starting the day the district decides on a disciplinary placement change.6 CAR 130-1105(a) |
| Signed complaint resolved | 60 calendar days | Your signed letter’s arrival at the Division starts it, naming a violation at most one year old.6 CAR 130-1201(d), 130-1202(a) |
How a child gets an IEP in Arkansas
Hand in a Referral Form
Give the principal a dated letter; a school employee completes the Referral Form from it.
Attend the referral conference
The principal and a teacher of your child meet you, then sign the decision to evaluate.
Give consent to evaluate
Sixty calendar days of testing follow, then the evaluation/programming conference rules on eligibility.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
Special Education Unit, DESE — The Division’s unit in Little Rock answers Part 130 questions and houses the Dispute Resolution Section.
If the school says no
Paper carries the Arkansas no, a Referral Conference Decision Form or a Notice of Action; silence past day seven is the quieter one.
- Write the principal for the day the Referral Form arrived and the conference date.
- Read the Notice of Action for its listed records; a refusal citing none is worth a complaint.
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.
Have the pages in your child’s file read back to you, free.
The review reads every page you upload and returns each finding in plain English, with one question for the team and the page it came from.
Review my IEP — freeFree, no card. It reads your pages and contacts no one.
Where this comes from
- Part 130, Subpart 4: ReferralThe rule quoted above.
- DESE special education rules indexEvery subpart of Part 130.
- The Notice of Action formBox A and Box B.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.