Step 4 of 8

Age 3+: Child Find and requesting an evaluation

Who can ask, how to ask so the clock actually starts, and why the deadline is the one number here you should look up for your own state.

From age 3, your school district carries an obligation called Child Find: it must identify, locate and evaluate all children with disabilities in its area who may need special education. That duty covers children attending private schools, children who are homeless or wards of the state, and highly mobile children -- and it explicitly includes children who are "advancing from grade to grade." Doing fine academically is not a lawful reason to refuse to evaluate.

Either a parent or the district itself may request an initial evaluation. Put your request in writing, date it, say you are requesting an initial evaluation for special education under IDEA, and keep a copy. The clock does not start on your request -- it starts when you give written consent for the evaluation -- but a dated written request is what stops the date being disputed later.

The federal default: the initial evaluation must be conducted within 60 days of the district receiving your written consent.
The exception that matters: IDEA lets a State set its own timeframe instead, and many have. So the real deadline where you live may not be 60 days, and may not be counted in calendar days at all.
If the district refuses to evaluate, it must give you prior written notice explaining why, what it relied on, what alternatives it considered, and how to challenge the decision. A verbal "no" is not a lawful answer.

This is the single biggest "check your state" point in this guide. Do not plan around 60 days without confirming it -- search for your state department of education's special education evaluation timeline, or ask your state's Parent Training and Information Center (step 8), who will know it without you having to read the regulations.

What this looks like in practice (one state's rules, as an example)

Massachusetts does not use the federal 60-calendar-day default. Under its own regulations, within 45 school working days of receiving a parent's written consent the district must provide the evaluation, convene a Team meeting to review the data, determine whether the student requires special education, and -- if so -- develop an IEP, with the assessments themselves completed inside 30 school working days. "School working days" is a materially different unit from calendar days, since it excludes weekends and school holidays. Every state structures this differently; this is one state's version, shown to make the point concrete, not a template for yours.

If you disagree with the district's evaluation, you have the right to ask for an independent educational evaluation at public expense. The district must then either pay for it or file for a due process hearing to defend its own evaluation -- it cannot simply refuse and leave it there.

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