An Evaluation Summary Report, a draft with a letter, a three-member panel: Delaware’s special education laws
Eight regulations, 922 through 929 of Title 14, carry IDEA in Delaware, and every sentence they set in italics is the state’s own addition. Its largest departure is an evaluation clock of 45 school days or 90 calendar days from written consent, whichever ends first. 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.
Delaware’s laws, rule by rule
Twelve classifications, one ESR
14 DE Admin. Code 922, §3.0Delaware lists twelve educational classifications, and a classification alone is not enough: the child must also, “by reason thereof,” need special education.
The Evaluation Summary Report records both findings, the classification and the need it creates.
Consent to eligibility meeting
14 DE Admin. Code 925, §2.3Your written consent opens a count of 45 school days, or 90 calendar days if sooner, ending at the eligibility meeting.
A June consent still meets the 90 calendar day cap, so summer cannot stall the meeting.
Draft IEPs carry a letter
14 DE Admin. Code 925, §9.1.1, §9.3.2Ten school days’ written notice precedes an IEP Team meeting, and any draft IEP carries a letter marking it “for discussion purposes only.”
Keep the letter with the draft; it proves the plan was open when you sat down.
Notice on a school-day count
14 DE Admin. Code 926, §3.1Written word of each proposal or refusal, whether about eligibility, evaluation, placement or FAPE, comes “no less than 10 school days before” it happens.
Federal notice comes a reasonable time ahead; Delaware’s comes on a count, so date it.
Code-of-conduct removals reviewed
14 DE Admin. Code 926, §30.5The LEA, you and IEP Team members get 10 school days from a discipline-driven placement change to read the file and settle whether the disability was the cause.
Carry the service logs in; undelivered IEP services are the second question.
SPARC, complaints, hearing panel
14 DE Admin. Code 923, §52.1; 926, §6.3.1, §11.2A detailed signed complaint gets the DOE’s written decision in 60 days; mediation is state-paid, and due process goes to a “3 member hearing panel.”
SPARC mediation and IEP facilitation are free; the panel seats an attorney, an educator, a lay member.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“Within 45 school days or 90 calendar days, whichever is less, of receiving written parental consent, the initial evaluation shall be conducted; and the child’s eligibility … shall be determined at a meeting convened for that purpose.”
14 DE Admin. Code 925, §2.3
A report mailed home ends nothing; the meeting that decides eligibility is the finish line.
The deadlines Delaware 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 |
|---|---|---|
| ESR and eligibility meeting due | 45 school days | Term-time days only, from receipt of your written consent; 90 calendar days is the outer cap.14 DE Admin. Code 925, §2.3 |
| IEP written once eligible | 30 days | Calendar days from the eligibility decision; “day” means calendar day unless a rule says otherwise.14 DE Admin. Code 925, §10.2.1 |
| Notice ahead of any change | 10 school days | Counting back from the change’s effective date; a disciplinary placement change gets 5 school days.14 DE Admin. Code 926, §3.1 |
| Placement changed for conduct | 10 school days | In-session days only, running from the placement decision the violation produced; breaks excluded.14 DE Admin. Code 926, §30.5 |
| Written decision from the DOE | 60 days | From the DOE’s receipt of a detailed signed complaint; only exceptional circumstances or agreed mediation extend it.14 DE Admin. Code 923, §52.1 |
How a child gets an IEP in Delaware
One dated email
Date an email to the principal: the child, what you see, the evaluation you want.
Consent, returned that day
The 45 school days begin on the district’s receipt of your signature, so hand it over promptly.
Open the ESR first
It records classification and need; the eligibility meeting decides both with you in the room.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
Exceptional Children Resources — The Department of Education workgroup that fields questions on these regulations and receives complaints, at 302-735-4210.
If the school says no
Silence past your request is the commoner gap; a written no arrives ten school days ahead.
- Send a second email quoting the date your first one arrived and ask for the district’s written answer.
- Exceptional Children Resources investigates a signed complaint that gives the regulation, the dates and the school; SPARC mediation is free.
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
- Regulation 925: evaluations, eligibility, IEPsWhere the quotation lives.
- Regulation 926: procedural safeguardsNotice, discipline, the panel.
- Rights and dispute resolution, Delaware DOEComplaint, mediation and facilitation forms.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.