Much of special education law is really about timing. Deadlines are how the system keeps a school from quietly putting your child's needs at the bottom of the pile. When you know the dates, "we'll get to it eventually" becomes "the law says by when."
It often starts with your written request for an evaluation. Once you ask, the clock begins, and the school has a limited window to get your consent and complete the evaluation. The exact number of days varies by state, but the principle is the same everywhere: your request triggers a timeline the school must follow.
After your child is found eligible, the team has to meet and put an IEP in place — in many states within 30 days of that decision. An IEP also has to be active at the very start of each school year, not weeks into it. If September arrives and the plan is still "being finished," that is worth a polite, dated question.
Every IEP must be reviewed at least once a year, and your child must be fully re-evaluated at least every three years — sooner if you or the school ask. These are floors, not ceilings. You can always request a review meeting earlier if the plan stops working; you do not have to wait for the annual date.
There are also deadlines that protect your right to disagree. Filing a state complaint, asking for a due process hearing, and similar actions each have their own time limits — often counted in months or a year or two from when the problem happened. Wait too long and the door can close, which is exactly why dates matter.
You do not have to track all of this in your head. Write the key dates down the moment they are set — the evaluation deadline, the annual review, the three-year re-evaluation — and you turn a system that can feel slippery into a checklist the school has to keep up with.
General information and document preparation — not legal advice.
