Fifteen calendar days, an EPT and adverse effect: how Vermont’s Rule 2360 works for parents
Vermont schools follow IDEA through the State Board of Education’s Rule Series 2360, which every supervisory union applies as the LEA. Eligibility is where Vermont differs most: for most categories, a disability has to show an adverse effect in a basic skill area before an IEP is written. 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.
Vermont’s laws, rule by rule
Eligibility and adverse effect
Rule 2362(a), (d), (g)The EPT finds a listed disability, an “adverse effect on the child’s educational performance” in one of nine basic skill areas, and a need the support system cannot meet.
An EST plan is that support system and pauses no clock; date your written request.
Request, consent, EPT report
Rule 2362.2.1(b)–(d)Fifteen calendar days after a request the district seeks consent, convenes the EPT or gives written reasons for denial; the report follows sixty days after consent.
A delay past sixty needs written notice, sent before day sixty, with a schedule.
The IEP and its start
Rule 2363.1; Rule 2363.8Vermont writes the IEP “within 30 days of an initial determination” of eligibility and puts it in effect before any service starts.
Services wait on a second signed consent under Rule 2363.8; ask for that form.
A written no, an outside evaluator
Rule 2365.1.1; Rule 2362.2.8A refusal comes in writing with the reasons and “other options the IEP team considered”; disagree with the evaluation and one independent evaluation is owed.
The LEA then pays for it or files for a hearing to defend its own.
Rule 4313: conduct and placement
Rule 4313.1(e)(1)Discipline lives outside Series 2360: a conduct removal that becomes a placement change gets a manifestation review within ten school days, IEP implementation included.
Bring the IEP and every service log; that question is decided on the file.
Three doors at the Agency
Rule 2365.1.4(c), 2365.1.5(f)(4), 2365.1.6.1(a)The Secretary of Education rules on a signed complaint inside 60 days, provides AOE-SEMS mediators at no cost, and hears due process complaints filed within two years.
Name the rule and the date; the Agency’s own investigator reads the file.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“Upon receipt of a request for an evaluation, the school district shall, within 15 calendar days, either: (1) Request parent consent to initiate the evaluation; (2) Convene an EPT meeting; or (3) Provide written reasons for denial of the request.”
Rule 2362.2.1(b)
A wait-and-see from the school is a fourth option the rule never wrote down.
The deadlines Vermont 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 |
|---|---|---|
| The district’s fifteen-day answer | 15 calendar days | Day one follows the day the school received your request, whatever form it took.Rule 2362.2.1(b) |
| Evaluation report from the EPT | 60 days | Consent in the LEA’s hands is day zero, or its notice that existing data is enough.Rule 2362.2.1(c) |
| IEP written after eligibility | 30 days | Starts on the EPT’s eligibility decision; the IEP is in effect before any service.Rule 2363.1(a), (c) |
| Placement-change review under Rule 4313 | 10 school days | Begins when the school decides a conduct removal is a placement change; vacations are skipped.Rule 4313.1(e)(1) |
| Administrative complaint decided | 60 days | Sixty days follow the Secretary’s receipt; the violation must be under one year old.Rule 2365.1.5(c), (f)(4) |
How a child gets an IEP in Vermont
Ask the supervisory union
Send the supervisory union’s special education director a dated evaluation request; copy the principal.
Approve the EPT plan
Each assessment is named in the EPT plan; received consent starts the sixty days.
Check the EPT’s rationale
Disability, adverse effect, need: mark any rationale in the report that has no data.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
Vermont Agency of Education, special education team — Montpelier’s special education team takes questions on Rule 2360, mediation requests and administrative complaints.
If the school says no
Written reasons for denial are what a Vermont refusal looks like; silence past day fifteen carries a date you can quote.
- Email the special education director the arrival date and ask which of the rule’s answers is coming.
- The Secretary of Education takes an administrative complaint by email; give it the rule, the date and the school.
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
- Vermont State Board of Education Rule Series 2360: special educationEvery section cited here, one file.
- Supplemental Rules 2194 and 4313The support team and the discipline rule.
- Notice of Procedural Safeguards: Rights of Parents of Students with DisabilitiesThe Agency’s parent rights notice, November 2022.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.