Guide · Texas special education timelines

The Texas 15-45-30 timeline, from referral to the initial ARD

Three clocks run between a referral and the initial ARD. Two count school days, one counts calendar days, and each has an exception that moves the date. This guide walks through all three for a director in their first year, with a calculator that counts them on a sample Texas calendar.

Count the days Book a walkthrough
  1. 15school days

    Referral to a response

    Prior written notice and a consent request, or notice that the district refuses to evaluate.

  2. 45school days

    Written consent to the FIIE

    Extended by absences of 3 or more days. Set to June 30 for some late-year consents.

  3. 30calendar days

    FIIE report to the initial ARD

    When day 30 lands in the summer, the ARD moves into the next school year.

Clock one

A referral gets an answer within 15 school days

A referral for a full individual and initial evaluation (FIIE) can come from a parent, from campus staff, or from another person involved in the student's education or care. When a parent submits a written request to the district's director of special education or to a district administrative employee, Texas Education Code §29.004 and 19 TAC §89.1011 give the district 15 school days to respond in one of two ways:

  • Propose the evaluation. Give the parent prior written notice of the proposal, a copy of the procedural safeguards notice, and an opportunity to give written consent.
  • Refuse the evaluation. Give the parent prior written notice of the refusal and a copy of the procedural safeguards notice.

Referrals from campus staff go through your district's referral process. Holding every referral to the same 15-school-day clock keeps any one of them from waiting unnoticed. Interventions do not pause the clock either: federal guidance is clear that a district cannot use a response-to-intervention process to delay or deny an evaluation (OSEP Memo 11-07).

Clock two

The FIIE is due 45 school days after written consent

Once the district receives the parent's signed written consent, the written FIIE report must be completed no later than the 45th school day after that date (TEC §29.004). Federal rules allow 60 days from consent unless a state sets its own timeline (34 CFR §300.301); Texas sets its own, so 45 school days is the one to meet.

The day consent arrives does not count. Day 1 is the next school day, and day 45 is the due date. Two exceptions move it: the June 30 rule for consent received late in the school year, and the extension for a student absent 3 or more days. Both are covered below.

How to count

School days and calendar days are counted differently

The 15-day and 45-day clocks count school days: days the student's school is in session for instruction. Weekends, holidays, staff development days, fall break, Thanksgiving week, winter break, and spring break do not count. Neither does a day the district closes for weather, which is why one snow day moves every open school-day deadline that runs past it.

Summer does not count either. A school-day count that reaches the last instructional day of the year picks up again on the first instructional day of the next one.

The 30-day clock to the initial ARD counts calendar days. Every day counts, weekends and breaks included.

School days

15 days to respond to a referral. 45 days to the FIIE. The absence extension. The June 30 window.

Calendar days

30 days from the completed FIIE report to the initial ARD.

Every district sets its own calendar, so the same consent date produces different due dates in two neighboring districts. The count has to run against your calendar, and it has to run again whenever the calendar changes.

Try it

Count the days on a sample Texas calendar

Pick a written consent date and the calculator counts 45 school days to the FIIE, then 30 calendar days to the initial ARD. Each square is a school day that counted; the hatched gaps are breaks that did not.

  • Set days absent to 3 or more to see the absence extension.
  • Pick a consent date in late March 2027 to see the June 30 rule.
  • Enter an FIIE report date in May to see the summer ARD rule.
  • Switch to Reevaluation to see when the REED opens.

The calculator uses the same rules as EvalCamp. The sample calendar runs August 12, 2026 to May 20, 2027, with Labor Day, fall break, Thanksgiving week, winter break, MLK Jr. Day, Presidents Day, spring break, Good Friday, and staff development days off. Your district's dates will differ.

End of the year

Consent late in the year can move the FIIE to June 30

When the district receives written consent at least 35 but fewer than 45 school days before the last instructional day of the school year, the FIIE report is due June 30 of that year instead of on the 45th school day (TEC §29.004, 19 TAC §89.1011). How many school days remain after consent decides which rule applies:

School days left after consent FIIE due
45 or more The 45th school day after consent
35 to 44 June 30 of that school year
Fewer than 35 The 45th school day, with the count resuming on the first instructional day of the next school year

The window is counted from your district's last instructional day, so it opens on a different date in every district. Check it in March, before consents start landing in it.

In EvalCamp, the June 30 rule does not apply once the absence extension is active for the student. The extended school-day count sets the due date instead.

Attendance

Three or more days absent extends the FIIE timeline

If the student is absent from school on 3 or more days during the 45-school-day period, the timeline is extended by the number of school days the student was absent (TEC §29.004). Two absences change nothing. Four absences add four school days.

Attendance has to be watched for the whole evaluation period, not only on the day consent arrives, so the due date can move late in the evaluation. The extension applies to the FIIE for initial evaluations, not to reevaluations.

Example on the sample calendar: consent on October 1, 2026 puts the FIIE on December 17. With 4 days absent, it moves to January 8, 2027, because winter break sits in between.

Clock three

The initial ARD follows within 30 calendar days of the FIIE

The ARD committee makes its decisions on eligibility, the IEP, and placement within 30 calendar days of the date the FIIE report is completed (19 TAC §89.1011). The clock starts from the date the report is actually completed, not from its due date, so finishing the report early moves the ARD deadline earlier too.

When day 30 falls in the summer, the ARD moves into the next school year

If the 30th day lands during the summer while school is not in session, 19 TAC §89.1011 gives the ARD committee into the next school year to finalize its decisions. EvalCamp sets that due date to the 15th school day of the next school year.

The summer exception does not hold when the FIIE indicates the student needs extended school year (ESY) services that summer. Then the ARD meets as soon as possible, and EvalCamp flags it that way instead of setting a date in the fall.

Reevaluations

Reevaluations run on a three-year clock, and the REED comes first

Federal rules require a reevaluation at least once every three years, unless the parent and the district agree one is not needed, and no more than once a year unless they agree otherwise (34 CFR §300.303).

A reevaluation starts with a review of existing evaluation data (REED). The ARD committee, with other qualified professionals as appropriate, reviews what is already known and decides what additional data, if any, it needs (34 CFR §300.305). If no new assessment is needed, the district tells the parent, who can still request one.

The 45-school-day FIIE clock and the absence extension belong to initial evaluations. A reevaluation is due by its three-year date, which is why the REED has to start early enough to finish any new testing before then.

In EvalCamp, the triennial due date is the prior evaluation report date plus three years, and the REED opens on its own 45 school days before that date.

State reporting

SPP 11 measures whether initial evaluations meet the timeline

State Performance Plan Indicator 11 (Child Find) is the federal measure of the share of initial evaluations completed within the state's timeline after parental consent. In Texas, that timeline is the 45 school days to the FIIE. SPP 11 is a compliance indicator, so the target is 100 percent.

TEA groups this span of work as Child Find, Evaluation, and ARD: the path from referral and consent through the FIIE to the initial ARD. The dates behind the indicator are the ones this guide covers: when consent arrived, when the FIIE report was completed, and when the ARD committee met.

Rules cited

  • Texas Education Code §29.004, Full Individual and Initial Evaluation
  • 19 TAC §89.1011, Full Individual and Initial Evaluation
  • 34 CFR §300.301, Initial evaluations
  • 34 CFR §300.303, Reevaluations
  • 34 CFR §300.305, Additional requirements for evaluations and reevaluations
  • OSEP Memo 11-07, response to intervention and initial evaluations

This guide is a plain-language summary for planning, not legal advice. Check the current rule text and your district's procedures, and ask your education service center or counsel about a specific case.

Where EvalCamp fits

Every clock, counted on your district's calendar

EvalCamp is evaluation management for Texas special education teams, from referral to the initial ARD. It calculates the 15, 45, and 30 day deadlines against your district calendar, applies the June 30 rule, the absence extension, and the summer ARD rule, and recalculates when a consent date changes. REEDs open themselves 45 school days before the triennial. Your IEP system stays exactly as it is.

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