Chapter 0520-01-09 and ten school days of notice: Tennessee’s special education laws
Tennessee adds State Board chapter 0520-01-09 to IDEA, administered by the Department of Education through your school system. The state spends its numbers on notice: ten school days before it acts, ten calendar days before a meeting, forty-eight hours for a draft. 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.
Tennessee’s laws, rule by rule
Sixteen categories, gifted included
0520-01-09-.03Sixteen recognized categories, among them “Intellectually Gifted” and Functional Delay, with the assessments each requires written in the department’s separate eligibility standards.
Federal law stops at thirteen; Tennessee writes giftedness its own standard and its own IEP.
Who refers, and the logged date
0520-01-09-.05(1)(c), (e), (f)“Any child suspected of having a disability may be referred,” receipt must be documented, and eligibility is decided within sixty calendar days of consent.
The sixty restates the federal floor; the logged receipt date is the Tennessee thing to ask for.
Ten school days of warning
0520-01-09-.15(4), (1), (2)Notice before the district acts comes ten school days ahead, meeting notice ten calendar days ahead, and a draft IEP “forty-eight (48) hours prior.”
IDEA asks only for a reasonable time; here the letter’s date is checkable, and the draft becomes yours.
Fourteen days before it sticks
0520-01-09-.12(3), (4)After a meeting without agreement, no change to the IEP or eligibility “shall be made for fourteen (14) days,” room to file for a hearing.
Nothing federal pauses a disputed IEP; you also sit on a team any member can convene.
Manifestation review with a day’s notice
0520-01-09-.15(3); 34 CFR 300.530(e)The manifestation review follows a placement-changing removal inside ten school days under the federal rule; Tennessee adds parent notice “at least twenty-four (24) hours prior.”
A day’s warning is Tennessee’s; bring the IEP and ask whether it was followed.
Secretary of state’s ALJs
Tenn. Code 49-10-604; 0520-01-09-.17, .18Administrative complaints are decided in 60 calendar days, hearing requests come within two years, and administrative law judges “employed by the secretary of state” hear them.
The department’s legal services team schedules a voluntary mediation and takes the complaint form.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“Written notice shall be given to the Parents of a child suspected to have a disability … within at least ten (10) school days of … Proposal to initiate or change the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of the child …”
0520-01-09-.15(4)
Ten school days is countable: date the notice and see whether it arrived before the decision it announces.
The deadlines Tennessee 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Eligibility decided after your consent | 60 calendar days | Your signed consent starts it, and Tennessee closes the count at the decision itself.0520-01-09-.05(1)(f) |
| Written notice before a decision | 10 school days | Counted back from the day the district acts, proposing the change or refusing it.0520-01-09-.15(4) |
| An IEP meeting you request | 10 school days | Any IEP team member can start this in writing, and a parent is one.0520-01-09-.12(4) |
| Meeting notice reaches you | 10 calendar days | The scheduled meeting date is what it counts back from; only your agreement shortens it.0520-01-09-.15(1) |
| The draft IEP is due | 2 days before | Forty-eight hours back from the scheduled meeting time; you may decline the copy in writing.0520-01-09-.15(2) |
| A disputed IEP takes effect | 14 days | The meeting that ended without agreement starts it; nothing on the IEP changes meanwhile.0520-01-09-.12(3) |
How a child gets an IEP in Tennessee
Put the referral in writing
Name your school system’s special education supervisor, put referral in the subject line, and date it.
Ask for the logged date
Districts must keep written procedures for documenting receipt, so ask which date yours was logged.
Consent starts the sixty
The sixty runs from the district’s recorded receipt of your consent, so note that date.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
Special Education Legal Services — Tennessee routes complaints and mediation through its special education legal team, reachable by email.
If the school says no
Silence is the common refusal here, and the rule above dates it at ten school days before the district acts.
- Request your district’s written referral procedure and the receipt date it recorded for your letter.
- Email the department’s legal team, which walks you through mediation and the complaint form.
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
- State Board Rule 0520-01-09, special education programsThe quoted rule.
- Timelines in Special Education, the department’s tableEvery state clock.
- Tennessee’s dispute resolution processes and formsMediation, complaints, due process.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.