Fourteen school days, then sixty: Illinois’s special education laws under Part 226
Part 226 of Title 23, Illinois’s State Board regulations, carries IDEA and Article 14 of the School Code into every district. Illinois counts in school days, fourteen to decide on your request and sixty from consent to the eligibility meeting. 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.
Illinois’s laws, rule by rule
Part 226 and the thirteen disabilities
23 IAC 226.10, 226.75Part 226 applies IDEA and Article 14 “in every instance when a child is or may be eligible”; disability means the thirteen federal categories.
Autism here includes any spectrum diagnosis that adversely affects schooling; the State Board enforces the Part.
Domains, decision and eligibility
23 IAC 226.110(c)(3), (d)Within fourteen school days the district decides whether to evaluate, naming assessments by domain; eligibility and an IEP meeting within sixty school days of consent.
Eight domains, health through motor abilities; a late-spring consent means eligibility before the next school year.
Ten days’ notice, three-day packet
23 IAC 226.530(a)Any IEP meeting is noticed ten days ahead, and “copies of all written material” the team will consider reach you three school days before.
Draft goals and evaluation reports arrive before the meeting; mark every line you want explained.
Service logs, on request
23 IAC 226.310Service logs record delivery and “the minutes of each type of related service,” and are yours at any time on request.
Speech, OT, PT, social work, counseling, psychology and nursing are logged; ask before an annual review.
Expulsion, suspension and the BIP
23 IAC 226.400Federal manifestation rules apply, and an act risking expulsion or more than ten cumulative days of suspension convenes an IEP Team meeting on the behavioral intervention plan.
The act is the trigger, so ask for the plan meeting before removals reach ten.
State complaints and hearing requests
23 IAC 226.560(b), 226.570(b), (c)The State Board decides a signed complaint about the past year within sixty days; mediation sought inside ten school days of the placement notice keeps stay-put.
Hearing requests go to your superintendent, who forwards them within five days; they reach back two years.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“Within 14 school days after receiving a request for an evaluation, the district shall determine whether an evaluation is warranted.”
23 IAC 226.110(c)(3)
The district owes a decision on paper, yes or no; an offer to try interventions first answers nothing.
The deadlines Illinois 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 |
|---|---|---|
| The district decides whether to evaluate | 14 school days | Runs from the day your request lands, and the consent form arrives with the decision.23 IAC 226.110(c)(3) |
| Eligibility decided, IEP meeting completed | 60 school days | Starts the day you sign consent; with fewer than sixty left, it ends before the next school year.23 IAC 226.110(d) |
| Services under a new IEP | 10 school days | After the notice that the IEP was developed or revised, unless a later date is written into the IEP.23 IAC 226.220(a) |
| Written notice of a meeting | 10 days before | Ten days back from the proposed meeting, with the three school days for materials inside.23 IAC 226.530(a) |
| State complaint decided by ISBE | 60 days | From ISBE’s receipt of a signed complaint about something that happened within the past year.23 IAC 226.570(b), (c) |
| Filing a due process request | 2 years | From when you knew or should have known of the event; the superintendent forwards it within five days.105 ILCS 5/14-8.02a(f) |
How a child gets an IEP in Illinois
Send a dated request
Name the child, the worry and the word evaluation; the principal’s office starts the fourteen.
Read the domain notice
Inside fourteen school days comes yes or no, with each domain’s assessments beside a consent form.
Sign, then watch the calendar
Signing starts the sixty school days; the packet lands three school days before the eligibility meeting.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
ISBE Special Education Department — ISBE’s special education staff take signed complaints and answer questions about Part 226 deadlines.
If the school says no
Illinois refuses in writing, and a request unanswered after fourteen school days is a finding by itself.
- Ask which domains were ruled out and why; the notice has to explain every domain it skipped.
- Send the principal one line with the date the request arrived, copying the special education director.
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.
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Review my IEP — freeFree, no card. It reads your pages and contacts no one.
Where this comes from
- Section 226.110, evaluation proceduresSource of the quotation.
- ISBE: special education programsWhere ISBE keeps its forms.
- ISBE’s Educational Rights and Responsibilities guideEvery safeguard, with sample letters.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.