Louisiana

1. Initial evaluation timeline

60 businessdays from the LEA’s receipt of parental consent - not 60 calendar days - with the summer subtracted out. LAC 28:CI.511.A (Bulletin 1508, Pupil Appraisal Handbook): “The initial evaluation must be conducted within 60 business days of receiving parental consent for the evaluation with appropriate extensions as described below.” Louisiana’s rule displaces the federal 60-calendar-day default (34 C.F.R. § 300.301(c)); 60 business days is roughly twelve school weeks, so the state clock is materially longer than the federal one, not shorter. Only two extensions exist:

• End of the Year Extension (§ 511.A.1): if fewer than 60 business days remain in the school year, the LEA may extend “with parent permission,” but “the number of days used between the parental signature and June 1 (the SER official beginning date for summer) will be subtracted from the 60 business days, and the timelines will begin again on September 1 (the SER official ending date for summer).” Summer is tolled, and the toll is hard-coded to June 1/September 1 rather than to the district’s calendar.

• Parentally Approved Extension (§ 511.A.2): agreed extension where the LEA “is making sufficient progress to ensure a prompt completion of the evaluation but needs extended time to assess the student in all areas of the suspected exceptionality.”

• No extension is available at all for an expedited disciplinary evaluation: “Extensions are not allowed during expedited evaluations for students subject to disciplinary measures as referenced in §534 of Bulletin 1706” (§ 511.B).

Front-end mechanics worth knowing: a referral in Louisiana normally routes through the School Building Level Committee (SBLC), a general-education RTI/screening committee that decides whether to “[r]efer the student to pupil appraisal personnel for an individual evaluation if an exceptionality is suspected” (LAC 28:CI.303). But interventions are not a prerequisite for everyone - LAC 28:CI.305: “Interventions are not required for a preschool-aged child, a student suspected of being gifted or talented, or a student suspected of having a severe or low incidence disability.” Once pupil appraisal receives the referral, the evaluation coordinator has 10 business days to “[r]equest informed parental consent to conduct an initial evaluation, if consent has not already been received” (LAC 28:CI.501.B.1). Also note the LDOE’s parent-facing rule that an LEA refusing a parent’s evaluation request “must provide you with a written explanation of the reason the request was denied within 10 days” (Louisiana’s Educational Rights of Children with Disabilities, May 2025).

Related trap: Louisiana forbids the school from ever putting the IQ number in writing. LAC 28:CI.507.B.2: “In no event shall IQ scores be reported or recorded in any individual student’s evaluation report or cumulative folder.” Expect ranges, classifications, and index descriptors instead of a Full Scale IQ; if you need the number, get it from an IEE or from the protocol/raw data, not from the LEA’s report.

Sources: LAC 28:CI.511 (Cornell LII); LAC 28:CI.507 (Cornell LII); Bulletin 1508, current official DOCX; LDOE - Louisiana’s Educational Rights of Children with Disabilities.

2. Eligibility-to-IEP timeline

Louisiana sets one, and it runs from a paperwork event, not from the eligibility meeting:

• 30 calendar days to complete the IEP/placement document, measured from dissemination of the evaluation report. LAC 28:XCVII.105.A (Bulletin 1530, Louisiana’s IEP Handbook): “An initial evaluation is considered ‘completed’ when the written report has been disseminated by the pupil appraisal staff to the administrator of special education programs. A LEA has a maximum of 30 calendar days to complete the IEP/placement document for an eligible student.” Within that window the LEA must issue written notice of the IEP meeting and hold the meeting. Bulletin 1706 states the same period in federal terms: “a meeting to develop an IEP for a student is conducted within 30 days of a determination that the student needs special education and related services” (LAC 28:XLIII.323.A).

• Implementation within 10 school days. Bulletin 1530: “A LEA shall begin providing services as stated on the IEP as soon as possible but no later than ten (10) school days. The date of initiation of services shall be noted on the IEP.” Same rule in LAC 28:XLIII.323.A (“no later than 10 school days following the development of the IEP”).

• Summer carve-out (Bulletin 1530 § 105.B.1): “When an initial evaluation report has been completed within the 30 days prior to the summer recess or during the recess, the LEA may request, through written documentation, parental approval to delay the initial IEP Team meeting until the first week of the next school session. However, when the parents wish to meet during the summer recess, the LEA shall ensure that the appropriate IEP Team members are present.” The delay is optional and parent-consented - a district cannot unilaterally push the initial IEP to August.

• Part C to Part B: “the IEP Team must develop and implement the IEP by the child’s third birthday” (Bulletin 1530 § 105.B.2); if the birthday falls in the summer, services begin no later than the start of the next school year.

Sources: LAC 28:XCVII.105 (Cornell LII); Bulletin 1530 (LDOE PDF); LAC 28:XLIII.323 (Cornell LII).