Arkansas

1. Initial evaluation timeline

60 calendar days from the public agency’s receipt of writtenparental consent - and, unlike Pennsylvania or Indiana, Arkansas provides no summer carve-out and no school-day/instructional-day conversion. The clock runs straight through breaks. Rule 6.03.1.1: “Evaluation procedures for initial evaluation of a child must be conducted within sixty (60) calendar days of receiving parental consent for the evaluation.” The IEP rule restates it: “procedures for initial evaluation of a child must be completed within sixty (60) calendar days of the written parental consent to evaluate” (§ 8.04.2.1(A)). DESE’s Special Education Process Guide gives the operative start/stop points: “Evaluations must be conducted within 60 calendar days. This timeframe begins upon the receipt of parental consent to conduct the evaluation, and ends with the completion of the last evaluation component.”

Only two exceptions exist (§ 6.03.1.4), both federal in origin: (A) the parent “repeatedly fails or refuses to produce the child for the evaluation”; or (B) the child enrolls in another public agency mid-timeline before eligibility is determined, and (B) applies only if the new agency is making sufficient progress and the parent and agency “agree to a specific time when the evaluation will be completed” (§ 6.03.1.5). The 60-calendar-day period continues through summer, winter break, spring break, and snow days. Current 6 CAR § 130-903 lists no school-break tolling rule.

Front-end trap - the clock does not start at referral. Arkansas interposes a mandatory referral conference between the referral and the consent-to-evaluate (see § 9 below). The 60 days starts only when signed consent comes back, which can be three weeks or more after the parent’s written referral.

Sources: DESE Rule 6.00 - Evaluation/Eligibility Criteria (PDF); DESE Rule 8.00 - IEP (PDF); DESE Special Education Process Guide (PDF); 005.18.10 Ark. Code R. 001 (Cornell LII).

2. Eligibility-to-IEP timeline

30 calendar days from completion of testing - and eligibility and the IEP are supposed to be done at the same meeting. Rule 6.06.1.1: “Upon completing the administration of tests and other evaluation measures - Within thirty (30) calendar days, an Evaluation/Programming Conference must be conducted.“ Rule 8.04.2.1(B) says what happens there: the conference is convened by a group of qualified professionals and the parent ”for the purpose of determining the student’s eligibility for special education and related services and the educational needs of the child and, if appropriate, develop an IEP for the child.“ DESE’s guidance is to the same effect: eligibility ”must be established (through an Evaluation Programming Conference) within 30 days of the completion of the evaluation,“ and the Process Guide lists the Initial IEP as one “developed within thirty calendar days of the completion of the initial evaluation.”

Two collateral rules worth calendaring:

• Evaluation report and eligibility documentation must be provided to the parent at no cost (§ 6.06.1.3). Arkansas sets no separate advance-of-meeting delivery interval.

• Reasonable notice, with 14 days as DESE guidance rather than a binding rule. 6 CAR § 130-904 requires notice a reasonable time before the meeting. The Process Guide treats 14 days as reasonable and allows the parent to agree to an earlier meeting.

Sources: DESE Rule 6.00 (PDF); DESE Rule 8.00 - IEP (PDF); DESE Special Education Process Guide (PDF); DESE AMI Guidance for Special Education (PDF).