Consent, a school-day count and a minority report: Nevada’s special education laws in NAC Chapter 388
NAC 388.001 to 388.450 is Nevada’s rule set, adopted under NRS 388.417 to 388.5243 and IDEA, and binding on every public agency. The count is the change: forty-five school days from informed written consent to a finished evaluation, skipping every day pupils are out. 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.
Nevada’s laws, rule by rule
The pupil with a disability
NRS 388.417(8); NAC 388.093A pupil with a disability is a child under IDEA’s definition “who is under 22 years of age”; a pupil eligible only for gifted programs is left out.
Pupil is the word on every Nevada form; eligibility runs to the twenty-second birthday.
Consent starts the forty-five
NAC 388.337(1)(a), (2), (4)After a good-cause finding, forty-five school days separate your consent from the finished evaluation; the Superintendent may add “not more than 15 school days.”
IDEA counts calendar days; Nevada’s unit skips every day pupils are not in class.
The eligibility team’s report
NAC 388.340(9), (10)Every eligibility decision “must be justified in a written report” you receive free; a member who disagrees may write a minority report.
Ask whether anyone dissented; for a specific learning disability the dissent must be written.
Notice before the public agency acts
NAC 388.300(8), (10), (11)Each prior written notice lists the action, its reasons, “other options the public agency considered” and every record relied on.
A notice missing the rejected options is incomplete; the statement of parental rights comes yearly.
The committee meets before removal
NAC 388.265(2)–(4)Before a suspension or expulsion changes placement, relevant committee members meet you and write findings; services resume “on the 11th school day.”
Nevada puts the meeting before the change; a removal already under way is your first question.
Complaint to the Superintendent
NAC 388.318(2), (4), (5); 388.305; 388.306(15)The Superintendent takes a signed complaint filed within one year; the Department answers in writing inside sixty days; mediation “is voluntary” for both sides.
You copy the public agency on filing day; IEP facilitation is the Department’s lighter route.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“when a public agency determines that good cause exists to evaluate a pupil … it shall conduct the initial evaluation within … Forty-five school days after the parent provides informed written consent”
NAC 388.337(1)(a)
Two gates open the count, a good-cause finding and your signature; a letter alone starts nothing.
The deadlines Nevada 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Initial evaluation completed | 45 school days | Your informed written consent is day zero, and only days pupils are scheduled in class count.NAC 388.337(1)(a), (4) |
| Extension by the Superintendent | 15 school days | Added onto the evaluation count only when the public agency asks the Superintendent for it.NAC 388.337(2) |
| Education records on request | 45 days | Runs from the day you ask, and ends sooner when a committee meeting or hearing comes first.NAC 388.287(1) |
| Services during a removal | School day 11 of removal | Removal days add up across one school year; from that day, FAPE is owed wherever the pupil is.NAC 388.265(4) |
| State complaint decision | 60 days | The Department’s receipt of your signed complaint starts it; the filing must fall within one year of the violation.NAC 388.318(2)(b), (5) |
| Hearing decision mailed | 45 days | Starts when the resolution period closes; the due process complaint itself reaches back two years.NAC 388.310(12); 388.306(15) |
How a child gets an IEP in Nevada
Refer by letter
Tell the principal or the district’s special education office, in a dated letter, what you have seen.
Provide informed written consent
Your signature is the day the forty-five school days begin; keep a copy.
Ask about a minority report
The eligibility team’s report arrives free; if members disagreed, the dissent is a page to request.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
NDE Dispute Resolution — The Department’s dispute-resolution desk takes state complaints and arranges facilitation, mediation and hearings free.
If the school says no
Nevada’s public agencies refuse on paper, with reasons and the records relied on; a hallway no is neither.
- Silence earns a second letter: name the day yours arrived and ask whether good cause was found.
- Request the statement of parental rights; it travels with a referral and explains the safeguards in full.
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
- Nevada Administrative Code, chapter 388: special educationEvery NAC section cited here.
- Nevada Revised Statutes, chapter 388The statutory definition of a pupil.
- Nevada Department of Education: IDEA dispute resolutionThe four routes and their forms.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.