Two clocks from one letter: Maryland’s special education laws in COMAR 13A.05.01
COMAR 13A.05.01, the State Board’s chapter on a free appropriate public education, carries IDEA in Maryland beside Education Article Title 8. Two counts at once are Maryland’s largest change: 60 calendar days from your consent and 90 from your written referral. 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.
Maryland’s laws, rule by rule
Twelve categories and the IEP team
COMAR 13A.05.01.03B(78)Maryland’s twelve impairments, autism through visual impairment, define a student with a disability who, “because of the impairment, needs special education,” from age 3 through the year turning 21.
Developmental delay is a separate door for young children; you sit on the IEP team.
Referral in writing, consent promptly
COMAR 13A.05.01.04AA suspected disability “shall be referred, in writing, to a public agency,” which then promptly asks your consent to assess.
Only you and the IEP team together can extend those time frames, in writing.
Sixty and ninety, run together
COMAR 13A.05.01.06A(1)Within 60 days of your consent for assessments, and within 90 days of the agency’s receipt of the written referral, the initial evaluation is complete.
IDEA counts only from consent; Maryland’s second count from the letter keeps a slow consent form from stalling it.
Ten days’ notice, five days’ papers
Educ. §8-405(b), (e), (f)Notice of an IEP team meeting “shall be at least 10 calendar days,” and each assessment, report, data chart or draft IEP comes five business days ahead.
Five business days after, you hold the completed IEP or a draft.
When removals add up
COMAR 13A.08.03.05A, .08BA conduct removal that changes placement triggers a meeting inside 10 school days, where the IEP team decides manifestation and the services owed meanwhile.
The line is more than 10 school days in a row, or a pattern adding up past 10 across the school year.
Complaints to MSDE, hearings at OAH
COMAR 13A.05.01.15A, B, CInside 60 days MSDE issues a written decision on a State complaint that looks back 1 year; mediation and hearing requests go to the Office of Administrative Hearings.
Nobody can make you mediate, and mediating cannot delay your hearing; counsel may sit beside you.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“An IEP team shall complete an initial evaluation of a student … within: (a) 60 days of parental consent for assessments … and (b) 90 days of the public agency receiving a written referral …”
COMAR 13A.05.01.06A(1)
Sign late and the letter’s ninety still binds; the earlier date ends the evaluation.
The deadlines Maryland 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 after consent | 60 days | Calendar days from your consent for assessments; COMAR reads a bare day as calendar.COMAR 13A.05.01.06A(1)(a) |
| Evaluation after the referral | 90 days | Day zero is when the agency receives your written referral; this row and the last both hold.COMAR 13A.05.01.06A(1)(b) |
| Advance notice, in calendar days | 10 calendar days | Backward from the meeting date, and the statute names this reasonable notice.Educ. §8-405(b) |
| Documents before the meeting | 5 business days | Days the agency is open, students or not, counted back from the meeting.Educ. §8-405(e) |
| Team meets after the evaluation | 30 days | The evaluation date starts it; implementation follows as soon as possible after.COMAR 13A.05.01.08A(1), .09D(3) |
| Manifestation meeting after removal | 10 school days | School days from the date personnel took the disciplinary action that changed placement.COMAR 13A.08.03.08B |
| Written decision on a State complaint | 60 days | Sixty days after MSDE receives the signed complaint, which may allege only the past year.COMAR 13A.05.01.15A(4), (7) |
How a child gets an IEP in Maryland
Mail a dated referral
A parent’s written referral starts the 90 by itself; date it and address the principal.
Sign for the assessments
The agency asks promptly; your consent starts the shorter count, so date the form.
Open the papers early
Reports and the draft IEP reach you five business days ahead; list your questions first.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
Division of Special Education — MSDE’s division answers COMAR questions and receives State complaints filed against Maryland public agencies.
If the school says no
Written notice under Regulation .12 is Maryland’s no, sometimes as a finding that no more data is needed.
- Appeal a refusal to assess under Regulation .15 by mediation, complaint or hearing.
- If nothing came back, send the referral’s receipt date; the 90 was already running.
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
- COMAR 13A.05.01.06: evaluation and eligibilityThe two clocks, quoted above.
- Education Article §8-405: IEP team meetingsNotice and the five-day papers.
- MSDE Division of Special EducationThe state office.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.