Sixty days, an Evaluation Report and consent every year: Montana’s special education laws beyond IDEA
ARM Title 10, chapter 16, written by the Superintendent of Public Instruction under the MCA, is Montana’s layer on IDEA. Consent is the change: your signature is asked for at initial placement and every year after, with fifteen days’ notice if you go quiet. 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.
Montana’s laws, rule by rule
Chapter 16 and the Superintendent
ARM 10.16.3121(1), 10.16.3122(1)The Superintendent of Public Instruction ensures FAPE for students “ages 3 through 18 inclusive,” owed by the district of residence from the third birthday.
Small districts pool the work in cooperatives; OPI, in Helena, answers for the state.
Who qualifies, in Montana’s categories
ARM 10.16.3007, 10.16.3010Montana’s own criteria decide each category, and the disability must “adversely affect the student’s educational performance” enough to need special education.
Cognitive delay is the term here; the Evaluation Report names the category and the need.
Signed request, then Evaluation Plan
ARM 10.16.3320(2)(b), (3)Your request carries “a statement of the reasons for the request” and your signature; a denial arrives as written notice.
The signed Evaluation Plan is consent; sixty calendar days from its receipt cover the assessments, then the Evaluation Report meeting.
Consent for placement, every year
ARM 10.16.3505(2)Consent is signed “for initial and annual placement”; neither given nor refused, a written notice puts services on the district’s IEP 15 days later.
IDEA asks once; Montana asks every year, so the date you signed each IEP belongs in your file.
Discipline, restraint and isolation
ARM 10.16.3346(1), (3), (4)Aversive procedures rest on a functional behavioral assessment, need IEP team approval and “may not be used as punishment”; isolation time-out means constant observation.
Manifestation determinations follow the federal rule; Montana adds the FBA and team approval behind any restraint.
Disputes, from the EAP to Helena
ARM 10.16.3662(5), (8), (13); 10.16.3523(6)The Early Assistance Program gets 15 business days to settle a signed complaint; the final report, due 60 days from filing, has no appeal.
Due process goes to the Superintendent in Helena; OPI pays the hearing’s costs, each side its own lawyer.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“Written parental consent for initial and annual placement of a student with disabilities in special education and related services shall be obtained by the local educational or public agency prior to the placement.”
ARM 10.16.3505(2)
Each year’s IEP waits on your signature; a year never signed is the first page to check.
The deadlines Montana 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Assessments on the Evaluation Plan | 60 calendar days | Your signed Evaluation Plan, in the district’s hands, starts it; summer and holidays never pause it.OPI guide 2024, Evaluation Plan Q16 |
| IEP, once need is found | 30 calendar days | The Evaluation Report meeting that found a need starts it; the IEP may come sooner.OPI guide 2024, IEPs Q2 |
| Placement consent notice | 15 days | Starts at the district’s written notice that annual placement consent was neither signed nor refused.ARM 10.16.3505(2)(c)(i) |
| Early Assistance Program attempt | 15 business days | The Dispute Resolution Office’s receipt of a written complaint starts it; these days sit outside the sixty.ARM 10.16.3660(3), 10.16.3662(5) |
| Final report from the Dispute Resolution Office | 60 days | Filing starts it, on a violation alleged within the past year; exceptional circumstances can stretch the count.ARM 10.16.3662(2)(a), (8) |
How a child gets an IEP in Montana
State your reasons, signed
Give the special education director a signed letter with your reasons; the rule wants both.
Sign the Evaluation Plan
It lists the assessments the Evaluation Team intends; your signature starts the sixty days.
Category and need, in writing
Both are written in the Evaluation Report; note your questions on it before the IEP meeting.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
OPI Dispute Resolution Office for Special Education — OPI’s dispute office in Helena runs the Early Assistance Program and takes complaints and mediation requests.
If the school says no
Silence has no state clock behind it here, and a refusal is a stand-alone PWN.
- A second letter naming the first’s date asks for an Evaluation Plan or a stand-alone PWN.
- The Early Assistance Program takes that question by phone; a signed complaint comes after.
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
- ARM 10.16.3505, parental consentThe rule quoted above.
- OPI: special education dispute resolutionThe EAP and every dispute form.
- Special Education in Montana, OPI, 2024Evaluation Plan and Report, question by question.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.