Rule 74.19 and what Mississippi adds to IDEA: the count starts the day you asked
Rule 74.19, Mississippi’s State Policies under IDEA, governs special education here alongside Mississippi Code 37-23-1. The change that matters most is the start: a spoken request is day one, and the MET meets within 14 calendar days. 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.
Mississippi’s laws, rule by rule
Who Rule 74.19 covers
74.19, §300.8(a), (b)(4)IDEA’s categories, with serious emotional disturbance and emotional disability as one, and developmental delay “birth through nine (9) years.”
A fresh delay ruling is due before age ten; Mississippi Code 37-23-1 covers ages three to twenty.
The MET and the spoken request
74.19, §300.301(b)(1)(i)Day one is your spoken or written request; the Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team (MET) meets within 14 calendar days to decide on evaluating.
Its notice follows 7 calendar days after the meeting; a refusal carries its justification.
From consent to the ruling
74.19, §300.301(c)(1); §300.306(a)Sixty calendar days of evaluation run from consent; eligibility follows within fourteen calendar days of the last assessment, reports seven days ahead.
The date on the last report closes the evaluation and starts the fourteen days.
Notice seven days ahead
74.19, §300.503(a)Prior written notice reaches you seven calendar days before the agency acts on evaluation, placement or services, “unless the parent waives the timeline.”
IDEA says a reasonable time; Mississippi puts a number on it, so a change sprung at the meeting is late.
Removals, the MDE and hearings
74.19, §300.530(e)(1); §300.152(a); §300.507(a)(2)The IEP Committee makes the manifestation call ten school days after a removal; the MDE decides complaints in sixty days; hearings reach back two years.
Mississippi calls the team the IEP Committee, and you sit on it.
Extended school year, defined
State Board Policy Rule 74.12Rule 74.12 defines regression, recoupment and mastery; a district “shall offer an extended school year” when summer loss is not recouped in ten weeks.
IDEA leaves ESY to the team; here summer skill loss has a state definition.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“Day one would be the day the parent makes the verbal or written request to the LEA (teacher, principal, secretary, special education director, etc.). The MET must make a decision within fourteen (14) calendar days of the parent’s request.”
Miss. State Board Policy 74.19, §300.301(b)(1)(i)
A hallway conversation is on the clock here; note the name and date before leaving.
The deadlines Mississippi 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 MET meets on your request | 14 calendar days | Day one is the day you asked, whether written down or said aloud.State Policies §300.301(b)(1)(i) |
| Consent form or a refusal | 7 calendar days | The MET meeting date starts these; ask which day the team met.State Policies §300.301(b)(1)(i)(a) |
| The comprehensive evaluation | 60 calendar days | It opens the day the district has your signed form; it closes on the last report’s date.State Policies §300.301(c)(1) |
| Evaluation reports reach you | 7 calendar days ahead | Owed ahead of the eligibility ruling; only your written waiver shortens the wait.State Policies §300.306(a)(2) |
| The eligibility determination meeting | 14 calendar days | It runs from the date the last report was signed, rarely the date you heard.State Policies §300.306(a) |
| The IEP Committee writes it | 30 days | The eligibility ruling starts them; Mississippi’s manual counts them as calendar days.State Policies §300.323(c)(1) |
How a child gets an IEP in Mississippi
Say it, then write it
Tell your principal, copy the special education director, then email the same words so the date holds.
Which day the MET meets
Mississippi puts the decision with that team, so ask which day the meeting is booked.
Sign, and the 60 begin
Your signed consent opens the 60 calendar days; nothing is tested before it arrives.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
Office of Special Education — One office in Jackson takes complaints, runs mediation, and lists every district’s special education director.
If the school says no
Refusal here comes from the MET, which may route your child to the Teacher Support Team.
- Write asking for the MET’s meeting date and the notice; silence is a missed date.
- Send the Office of Special Education a signed complaint naming dates; the state answers in writing.
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
- Mississippi’s State Policies under IDEA, Rule 74.19Every deadline on this page.
- Volume I: Child Find, Evaluation and EligibilityHow the state runs it.
- First Steps, Mississippi’s early intervention programWhere a child under three starts.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.