Nevada

1. Initial evaluation timeline

45 schooldays from the date the parent provides informed written consent - extendable by another 15 school days on the district’s request to the State Superintendent. NAC 388.337 requires the public agency to conduct the initial evaluation within “[f]orty-five school days after the parent … provides informed written consent“ (the same 45-school-day clock runs from a hearing officer’s order where a hearing officer orders an evaluation). Two features make this materially different from the federal 60-calendar-day default of 34 C.F.R. § 300.301(c):

• “School day” is defined inside the section as “any day in which pupils enrolled in a school are scheduled to be engaged in registration, classes, other instructional activities or testing during the required minimum daily period for each grade or department.” Summer, winter and spring breaks, holidays, and non-instructional days therefore do not count. Consent signed in late April routinely produces an evaluation in the following school year, and 45 school days is roughly nine school weeks of actual attendance - in wall-clock terms usually longer than the federal 60 calendar days.

• The Superintendent may extend it. “Upon the request of a public agency, the Superintendent may extend the deadline for conducting initial evaluations for not more than 15 school days.“ That is a state-level extension the parent does not have to agree to - up to 60 school days total.

Enumerated exceptions (NAC 388.337): a pupil who transfers to another public agency mid-evaluation where the succeeding agency “is making sufficient progress to ensure a prompt completion of the evaluation” and the parties agree to a new date; and a parent who “repeatedly fails or refuses to deliver the pupil for the evaluation.”

Front-end trap: the clock runs only from informed written consent. NAC 388.325 forbids delaying an evaluation until intervention is complete when the agency suspects a disability. Nevada sets no fixed number of days for answering a parent’s evaluation request; NAC 388.300 requires prior written notice within a reasonable time. Put the request in writing and demand prompt prior written notice if the agency refuses.

Sources: NAC 388.337 (Cornell LII); NAC 388.337 (nvrules.elaws.us); NAC 388.300 (Cornell LII); NAC 388.325 (Cornell LII); NAC Chapter 388 (Nevada Legislature).

2. Eligibility-to-IEP timeline

30 calendar days from the eligibility determination to the IEP meeting. NAC 388.281 requires the meeting within 30 days and does not specify school or business days. The incorporated federal rule, 34 C.F.R. § 300.323(c)(1), uses calendar days.

Nevada sets no separate fixed state deadline for implementing the IEP once written. NAC 388.281 requires the IEP to be in effect before services begin, and 34 C.F.R. § 300.323(c)(2) requires implementation as soon as possible after development.

Sources: NAC 388.281 (Cornell LII); NAC 388.340 - determination of eligibility (Cornell LII).