The ARC and sixty school days: what Kentucky’s regulations add to IDEA
Under IDEA, Kentucky’s layer is 707 KAR, Chapter 1, kept in Frankfort by its Office of Special Education and Early Learning. Its sixty school days run past the evaluation, through eligibility and the ARC, to the day instruction actually begins. 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.
Kentucky’s laws, rule by rule
Who the ARC finds eligible
707 KAR 1:002, Section 1(1), (2), (9)Thirteen conditions qualify, each with an “adverse effect” on educational performance that leaves the child needing specially designed instruction and related services.
Adverse effect here means performance “significantly and consistently below” similar-age peers; the ARC applies it.
One count, consent to instruction
707 KAR 1:320, Section 2(3), (4)Within sixty school days of your consent the child is evaluated and, if eligible, services are “provided in accordance with the IEP.”
IDEA’s sixty days stop at the evaluation; Kentucky’s stop when instruction begins.
Your seat at the ARC
707 KAR 1:320, Section 3(1), 4(1)Parents sit on the ARC, which meets on seven days’ written notice at a “mutually-agreed-on time and place.”
Short notice or an hour you cannot make is grounds to ask for another date.
What the LEA writes before acting
707 KAR 1:340, Section 4(1), 2(6)Before the LEA acts on a proposal or a refusal, notice arrives “within a reasonable time,” listing the options it weighed and rejected.
You can request one independent educational evaluation at public expense for each LEA evaluation you dispute.
Behavior, placement and the ARC’s review
707 KAR 1:340, Section 14(2), 15(1)A removal may run ten consecutive school days; a placement change for conduct puts the ARC’s relevant members back in the file inside ten school days.
Bring your own data; the rule counts information “provided by the parents” among what they read.
Complaints and appeals in Frankfort
707 KAR 1:340, Section 8, 10(3), 13(1)Frankfort decides a written complaint in sixty days, pays for mediation, and appeals go to the Exceptional Children Appeals Board.
A signed letter opens the complaint route; a hearing officer’s decision can go up one more level.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“within sixty (60) school days following the receipt of the parental consent for an initial evaluation … if the child is eligible, specially designed instruction and related services will be provided in accordance with the IEP.”
707 KAR 1:320, Section 2(3)
The count ends at instruction delivered, so a child still waiting past day sixty is late.
The deadlines Kentucky 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 |
|---|---|---|
| From your signature to instruction | 60 school days | Starts when your signed consent reaches the LEA; school days only, so breaks pause it.707 KAR 1:320, Section 2(3) |
| ARC convenes after eligibility | 30 days | Opens at the eligibility decision and sits inside the sixty, so both counts overlap.707 KAR 1:320, Section 2(4) |
| Warning before the ARC meets | 7 days | Read backward from the meeting; discipline placement changes and safety issues are the carve-out.707 KAR 1:320, Section 4(1) |
| Manifestation determination meeting | 10 school days | Triggered by a decision to change placement for conduct; you help choose who attends.707 KAR 1:340, Section 15(1) |
| KDE decides a complaint | 60 days | Begins when the department receives the complaint; violations older than one year are outside it.707 KAR 1:340, Section 8 |
How a child gets an IEP in Kentucky
Write the director of special education
Name your child and ask for an initial evaluation; the LEA’s referral system accepts parents’ letters.
Consent, on paper
Your signature starts the sixty school days; evaluation, eligibility and first services all sit inside them.
Go to the ARC
Read the notice for the date, bring questions, and take the IEP copy home.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
Office of Special Education and Early Learning — Kentucky’s state complaints, mediation requests and hearing requests all start at this Frankfort office.
If the school says no
The referral system or the ARC gives Kentucky’s no, and both put it on paper.
- If the letter drew no answer, write again naming its date and asking where it sits.
- Get the notice with its rejected options, then choose between a complaint and an independent evaluation.
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
- 707 KAR 1:320, Individual Education ProgramHome of the quoted rule.
- 707 KAR 1:340, procedural safeguardsNotice, discipline, complaints and appeals.
- Kentucky Department of Education: Dispute Resolution ProcessHow to file with the state.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.