Indiana

1. Initial evaluation timeline

50 instructionaldays from the date licensed personnel receive written parental consent - and the evaluation andthe case conference committee (CCC) meeting must both happen inside that window. 511 IAC 7-40-5(a): “The initial educational evaluation must be conducted and the CCC convened within fifty (50) instructional days of the date the written parental consent is received.” This is not the federal 60-calendar-day rule (34 C.F.R. § 300.301(c)) and it is materially different in operation: “instructional day” means “any day or part of a day that students are expected to be in attendance” (511 IAC 7-32-22, “Day” defined; the same section defines “day” as a calendar day unless otherwise stated, and “business day” as Monday-Friday excluding holidays). Because only attendance days count, summer, winter break, spring break, snow days, and teacher in-service days do not run the clock - consent signed in late April can lawfully produce a CCC meeting in the following school year. Enumerated exceptions to the 50-day rule (511 IAC 7-40-5): Part C transition (evaluation completed by the third birthday), a parent who repeatedly fails or refuses to produce the student, and a student who transfers to another public agency mid-evaluation where sufficient progress is being made and the parties agree to a new date.

Front-end trap worth knowing: a parent may request an initial evaluation orally or in writing, to any licensed personnel, and the agency then has ten (10) instructional days to give the parent written notice proposing or refusing the evaluation (511 IAC 7-40-4). The 50-day clock does not start until written parental consent comes back.

Sources: 511 IAC 7-40-5 (Cornell LII); 511 IAC 7-40-4 (Cornell LII); 511 IAC 7-32-22 - “Day” defined (Cornell LII); IDOE - Educational Evaluation one-pager (PDF); Article 7, Title 511 (IDOE full text, May 2024) (PDF).

2. Eligibility-to-IEP timeline

Indiana expects eligibility and the initial IEP to be addressed within the 50-instructional-day evaluation process, but federal law supplies a backstop. If the CCC determines eligibility and does not complete the IEP at that meeting, 34 C.F.R. § 300.323(c)(1) requires an IEP meeting within 30 calendar days of the eligibility determination. Article 7 does not authorize an open-ended adjournment. The other downstream deadlines are:

• Evaluation report before the meeting, but only on request. On parent request, the agency must give the report at no cost “not less than five (5) instructional days prior to the scheduled CCC meeting,” and/or arrange a meeting with someone who can explain the results within that same 5-instructional-day pre-meeting window. If the parent does not ask, the agency need only hand over the report at the CCC meeting. 511 IAC 7-40-5. Practical rule for parents: ask in writing, every time.

• Copy of the IEP: given at the conclusion of the CCC meeting, or mailed so that it is received not later than 10 business days after the meeting. 511 IAC 7-42-6.

• Initial IEP implemented no later than 10 instructional days after written parental consent to the initial IEP is received. 511 IAC 7-42-8.

• Subsequent (annual/revised) IEPs take effect on the eleventh instructional day after the agency’s written notice, unless the parent consents in writing to an earlier date. 511 IAC 7-42-8. (See § 9 below - this is the state’s signature quirk.)

Sources: Indiana Article 7; 34 C.F.R. § 300.323; 511 IAC 7-40-5; 511 IAC 7-42-6; 511 IAC 7-42-8.