Oregon

1. Initial evaluation timeline

60 schooldays from the district’s receipt of written parental consent - running to the date of the eligibility meeting, not merely to the completion of testing. OAR 581-015-2110(3): “An initial evaluation must be completed within 60 school days from written parent consent to the date of the meeting to consider eligibility.” Two Oregon-specific consequences:

• “School day” is a term of art. OAR 581-015-2000 defines a school day as “any day, including partial days that children are in attendance at school for instructional purposes.” Summer, winter and spring breaks, in-service days, and snow days therefore do not count - the clock tolls automatically by definition rather than by an express summer carve-out. A consent signed in late May can lawfully produce an eligibility meeting in the following November.

• The deadline is the meeting, not the report. Unlike states that require only delivery of an evaluation report, Oregon’s 60th school day is the outside date for the team to convene and decide eligibility.

Documented exceptions (OAR 581-015-2110): parents “repeatedly fail or refuse to produce the child for an evaluation,” other circumstances outside the district’s control, a transfer student mid-evaluation where district and parent agree in writing to a different length of time, and a written district-parent agreement to extend an SLD evaluation.

Trap: the 60-school-day clock starts only at written consent. OAR 581-015-2105 requires a team, which may act without a meeting, to decide whether to evaluate, but it supplies no numeric deadline for that decision. The gap is not consequence-free: if the district proposes or refuses an evaluation, prior written notice must be given within a reasonable time before that action under OAR 581-015-2310 and 34 C.F.R. § 300.503. Put the referral in writing, request a prompt written decision, and calendar the consent date separately. Sources: OAR 581-015-2110 (SOS Administrative Rules); OAR 581-015-2000 (Definitions); OAR 581-015-2105 (Referral); OAR 581-015-2310 (Prior Written Notice).

2. Eligibility-to-IEP timeline

30 calendar days from the eligibility determination to the IEP meeting. OAR 581-015-2220 requires the district to “conduct a meeting to develop an initial IEP within 30 calendar days of a determination that the child needs special education,” with services made available as soon as possible after development and an IEP in effect at the beginning of each school year. Note the switch in units: the evaluation clock runs in school days, the IEP clock in calendar days. The rule does not add a fixed outside number of days for implementation after the IEP is written; “as soon as possible” is the operative standard. Source: OAR 581-015-2220.