Written prior notice, fourteen days, and a sixty-day evaluation process: New Hampshire’s special education rules

New Hampshire’s laws, rule by rule

1. The child Ed 1100 covers

   Ed 1102.01(t); Ed 1101.01

   Covered is any child under IDEA’s categories “who is 3 years of age or older but less than 22,” plus developmental delay and acquired brain injury.

   Acquired brain injury is New Hampshire’s own category; IDEA names only the traumatic kind.

2. Referral and its disposition

   Ed 1106.01(c)–(e)

   Any referral brings immediate written notice, and within 15 business days the IEP team gives “written notice of its disposition of the referral.”

   IDEA puts no clock on answering a referral; here the disposition is dated.

3. The evaluation process, defined

   Ed 1107.01(c); Ed 1102.02(n)

   Sixty days after consent, the tests, the written summary report “and a meeting of the IEP team to review the results” are done, eligibility included.

   A report in the mail closes nothing; the count runs to the meeting reviewing it.

4. WPN, then fourteen days to sign

   Ed 1120.03(a); Ed 1120.04(c)–(e)

   Written prior notice arrives “not less than 14 days” before the LEA initiates, changes or refuses anything from referral to placement; you have 14 days to sign.

   Partial consent is a right: refuse one line in writing and the rest still begins.

5. Home instruction after removal

   Ed 1124.01; Ed 1124.02

   Once a child is removed for “more than 10 days in a school year,” services must keep IEP progress going; at home, 10 hours a week.

   Past ten days out, ask for the weekly hours in writing; the rule names the floor.

6. The Commissioner and the neutral

   Ed 1121.03(a); Ed 1122.02; RSA 186-C:23-b

   A written complaint to the Commissioner is resolved within 60 days; before a hearing, a neutral conference is “an informal, abbreviated presentation” ending in a recommendation.

   The Department takes complaints by mail only; an emailed one counts as never received.

What the rule says

The state wrote it this way:

“For initial evaluations, the evaluation process, as defined in Ed 1102.02(n), shall be completed within 60 days after receipt of parental consent to evaluate.”

Ed 1107.01(c)

The defined term includes the results meeting, so testing on time and meeting late is still late.

The deadlines New Hampshire sets

School days and calendar days count differently, so read the unit in every row.

How a child gets an IEP in New Hampshire

1. Write your own referral

   Write the referral yourself and give it to the principal; a disposition is owed inside fifteen business days.

2. Sign within the fourteen

   Consent for the evaluation goes back within fourteen days of the notice; your signature opens the sixty days.

3. Sit for the results meeting

   The IEP team reviews the summary report with you and rules on eligibility; the sixty days end there.

The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.

Bureau of Special Education Support — Concord’s Bureau answers Ed 1100 questions, arranges mediation and neutral conferences, and receives mailed complaints.

If the school says no

Here a no is a written prior notice dated at least fourteen days ahead; anything shorter is a conversation.

• If the referral drew no disposition inside fifteen business days, write the director with the referral date.
• Mail the complaint, signed, to the Commissioner; the office opens nothing sent electronically.

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.

Where this comes from

• Ed 1100, New Hampshire’s special education rulesThe chapter quoted above.
• RSA 186-C:23-b, the neutral conferenceThe conference, in statute.
• NHED: filing a special education complaintThe mailing rule and form.
• The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.