Notice of Intent to Evaluate, sixty calendar days, a child complaint: Missouri’s special education laws
Missouri’s State Plan for Special Education, sixteen regulations DESE writes under IDEA Part B, governs every public agency here. The document Missouri adds is the Notice of Intent to Evaluate, due within thirty calendar days of a 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.
Missouri’s laws, rule by rule
The State Plan and DESE
Regulation I, p. 1The State Plan binds every Missouri public agency, each program under “the general supervision of the Office of Special Education.”
Charter and state schools owe the same clocks and forms; DESE monitors and enforces them.
Eligibility and the Young Child category
Regulation III, p. 23, 32Twelve IDEA categories plus “Young Child with a Developmental Delay,” ages three through seven, each with initial eligibility criteria the State Plan sets.
The Evaluation Report must show those criteria were met; a diagnosis alone does not.
Thirty days, then sixty calendar days
Regulation III, p. 34A request gets a Notice of Intent to Evaluate or a Notice of Action Refused inside thirty days; eligibility follows sixty calendar days after consent.
Summer break and illness are “just cause” to pause it, only if the file records them.
The Parents’ Bill of Rights
Regulation V, p. 66The safeguards notice and “a copy of the Parents’ Bill of Rights” reach you within five school days of a referral or evaluation request.
Missouri wrote its own rights booklet by statute; a refusal comes on a Notice of Action.
Suspension counts and manifestation
Regulation V, p. 90–91Past the tenth removal day in a year services continue, and a conduct placement change is reviewed within ten school days for its link to the disability.
Tally removal days yourself; the review also asks whether the IEP was followed.
Child complaint or AHC hearing
Regulation V, p. 70–75A child complaint about the past year gives DESE “60 calendar days to investigate and resolve” it; hearings run through the Administrative Hearing Commission.
Send the district its own copy the same day, or DESE’s count waits until it does.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“The public agency shall provide the parent with a Notice of Intent to Evaluate as soon as possible, but within thirty (30) calendar days of the date of referral for evaluation.”
Regulation III, p. 34
IDEA puts no clock between referral and consent form; Missouri puts thirty calendar days there.
The deadlines Missouri 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Notice of Intent to Evaluate | 30 calendar days | From the referral date, with just-cause delays like summer break allowed only when the record documents them.Regulation III, p. 34 |
| Evaluation done, eligibility rendered | 60 calendar days | Following your signed consent; a student kept from testing or a mid-count transfer stops it.Regulation III, p. 34 |
| Meeting to develop the IEP | 30 days | After the determination that the student needs special education; services follow soon after.Regulation IV, p. 53 |
| Safeguards and the Bill of Rights | 5 school days | After an initial referral or your evaluation request; otherwise both booklets come yearly.Regulation V, p. 66 |
| Conduct placement change reviewed | 10 school days | From the decision to change placement over a conduct violation, in days children attend school.Regulation V, p. 91 |
| DESE decides a child complaint | 60 calendar days | From DESE’s receipt of the completed complaint, reaching back one year; the Commissioner may extend it.Regulation V, p. 70–71 |
How a child gets an IEP in Missouri
Refer your own child
Date a letter to the principal naming your child and the concern; it starts the thirty calendar days.
Watch for two notices
Inside thirty calendar days comes a Notice of Intent to Evaluate or a Notice of Action Refused.
Consent, then the Evaluation Report
Your signature starts the sixty calendar days; the Evaluation Report reaches you free.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
Office of Special Education, DESE — DESE’s compliance staff take child complaints and mediation requests and answer State Plan questions.
If the school says no
A Notice of Action Refused is how Missouri says no; silence by day thirty is worth naming in writing.
- Read the refusal against the initial eligibility criteria the State Plan sets for the category you suspect.
- Give the director of special education the referral date in writing and ask for the Notice of Intent.
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
- Regulation III: Identification and EvaluationWhere the quotation lives.
- Missouri’s State Plan, Part BAll sixteen regulations, current.
- DESE: due process and child complaintsForms for every dispute route.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.