District of Columbia

Threshold note: D.C. is not a state, but it operates as its own SEA and its own principal LEA. The State Education Agency is the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE); DCPS and each independent public charter school are LEAs. The rules live in the D.C. Official Code (Title 38, ch. 25B and 25C) and in DCMR Title 5-A, Chapter 30 - note that the special-education chapter was moved out of Subtitle 5-E into Subtitle 5-A (Office of the State Superintendent of Education) in the 2021-22 rulemaking. Citations to “5-E DCMR ch. 30” are to the superseded chapter. Source: OSSE - Local Special Education Law and Regulations; 5-A DCMR Chapter 30, Full Text (7/1/2022) (PDF).

1. Initial evaluation timeline

60 calendardays from the LEA’s receipt of parental consent - and the 60 days must produce not just the evaluation but the eligibility determination. No summer or holiday tolling.

• The statute. D.C. Code § 38-2561.02(a)(2)(A): “Beginning July 1, 2018, an LEA shall assess or evaluate a student who may have a disability and who may require special education services within 60 days from the date that the student’s parent or guardian provides consent for the evaluation or assessment.“ The same paragraph adds: ”The LEA shall make reasonable efforts to obtain parental consent within 30 days from the date the student is referred.“ (Historical note for older files: before July 1, 2018 the District ran on 120 days from the date of referral - § 38-2561.02(a)(1). Anything citing 120 days is stale.)

• The regulation goes further than the federal rule. 5-A DCMR § 3005.4(b) requires the LEA to “Evaluate and make an eligibility determination for a student who may have a disability and who may require special education services within sixty (60) days from the date that the student’s parent or guardian provides consent for the evaluation.“ Federal law (34 C.F.R. § 300.301(c)(1)) puts only the evaluation inside the 60 days and gives an additional 30 days for the eligibility meeting under § 300.306(a)(1)/§ 300.323(c). In D.C., the eligibility determination is inside the 60.

• Day type. Calendar. 5-A DCMR § 3099 (Definitions): “Day - A calendar day, unless otherwise specified as a school day or business day.“ (”Business day - Monday through Friday except for federal and District of Columbia holidays.“) Chapter 30 uses ”business day“ and ”school day“ expressly where it means them; § 3005.4(b) says only ”days.“ The clock therefore runs through summer break, winter break, and spring break - the opposite of Pennsylvania (22 Pa. Code § 14.123(b)) and Indiana (instructional days). A consent signed in late May is due 60 calendar days later, in the summer.

• The only tolling/exceptions (5-A DCMR § 3005.5): (a) the LEA made and documented reasonable efforts and “the parent of a child repeatedly fails or refuses to produce the child for the evaluation“; or (b) the child enrolls in a new LEA mid-evaluation, the new LEA is making sufficient progress, and the parent and new LEA agree on a completion date “not to exceed an additional thirty (30) days.“ OSSE’s non-regulatory guidance recognizes only these plus the federal SLD mutual-written-agreement extension: OSSE - Special Education Non-Regulatory Guidance: Evaluation Flexibilities (July 2022) (PDF). No summer or holiday tolling provision exists.

• Front-end traps. A referral “may be presented orally or in writing,” and “an LEA shall document any oral referral within 3 business days of receipt“ (D.C. Code § 38-2561.02(a)(3); 5-A DCMR § 3004.3(b)) - so a hallway conversation with a teacher is a documentable referral date. The LEA must begin reasonable efforts to get consent “no later than ten (10) business days from the referral date“ and complete them within 30 days of referral (5-A DCMR § 3005.3(a)). None of that starts the 60-day clock - only written consent does.

Sources: D.C. Code § 38-2561.02; 5-A DCMR ch. 30, §§ 3004, 3005, 3099 (PDF); DC Special Education Hub - Eligibility & Implementation (“Once the Consent to Evaluate form is signed, the team has 60 days to complete the agreed upon evaluations and make an eligibility determination”).

2. Eligibility-to-IEP timeline

Yes - 30 days, and it is a developmentdeadline, not merely a meeting deadline.

• 5-A DCMR § 3017.1: “The LEA shall ensure that the IEP Team completes its development of the initial IEP for a child with a disability within thirty (30) days of a determination that a child is eligible for special education and related services.“ Calendar days (§ 3099). This tracks - but is worded more demandingly than - 34 C.F.R. § 300.323(c)(1), which requires only that a meeting be held within 30 days.

• Copy to the parent - 5 business days. D.C. Code § 38-2571.03(4)(A): “No later than 5 business days after a meeting at which a new or amended IEP has been agreed upon, the public agency shall provide the parents with a copy of the IEP,“ extended to 15 business days where translation/language-access compliance is required.

• Copy to the staff who must implement it - 5 business days. 5-A DCMR § 3017.2: “The LEA shall provide school staff and related service providers with access to the completed IEP no later than five (5) business days after the IEP is finalized.“

• Initial services still require consent (5-A DCMR § 3016; 34 C.F.R. § 300.300(b)).

• Transfer students: comparable services “shall be in place no later than twenty (20) calendar days“ of enrollment, and the new LEA must develop and finalize a new IEP within 60 calendar days (5-A DCMR § 3020).

• OSSE’s parent-facing hub compresses the rule to “the team has 30 days to develop and implement an Individualized Education Program.” The local 30-day period governs IEP development. Implementation is separately governed by 34 C.F.R. § 300.323(c)(2), which requires services to be made available as soon as possible after development; do not describe both duties as a numbered local 30-day mandate.

Sources: 5-A DCMR §§ 3016, 3017, 3020 (PDF); D.C. Code § 38-2571.03; DC Special Education Hub - Eligibility & Implementation.