Connecticut IEP Evaluation Timeline, Dispute Routes and Parent Resources (2026)
- Evaluation window
- 45 school days
- The clock starts at
- Referral
- State complaint deadline
- One year
- Due process deadline
- Two years
How long does a school in Connecticut have to complete an IEP evaluation?
Connecticut runs its own clock rather than the federal 60 calendar day default. A district that receives a written referral has 45 school days to carry the whole process from referral through to an IEP that is in place, covering consent, testing, the eligibility decision plus the start of services. Time spent waiting on a parent's signed consent sits outside that count. Where the planning and placement team recommends an out of district or private placement, the window is 60 school days. School days means days school is actually in session, so a February referral in a district with a February break lands differently than the same referral in September.
The evaluation timeline in Connecticut
| Initial evaluation window | 45 school days |
|---|---|
| The clock starts at | referral to the planning and placement team, excluding time to obtain consent |
| Against the federal rule | A timeframe Connecticut sets for itself |
IDEA sets a default of 60 calendar days from parental consent for an initial evaluation (34 CFR 300.301(c)(1)). It also lets a state set its own timeframe instead, which is what Connecticut has done, so the window above is the one that applies here.
Connecticut runs its own timeline rather than the federal 60 calendar day default. It requires the IEP to be implemented within 45 school days of referral, not just the evaluation completed. That window stretches to 60 school days when the placement is out of district or private.
Source: Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies Section 10-76d-13 portal.ct.gov/-/media/SDE/Performance/Data-Collection/Help-Sites/Evaluation-Timelines/FS_EvaluationTimelines.pdf
The same window sits beside all fifty-one jurisdictions on the evaluation timelines by state table, which explains where the federal deadline comes from. To pull one state's window on its own, the evaluation deadline checker returns that single result.
Reevaluation and IEP review cadence in Connecticut
Connecticut keeps the federal rhythm on cadence by adopting the federal rules by reference rather than writing its own numbers. A reevaluation happens at least once every three years unless the family plus the district agree that one is unnecessary, no more than once a year unless both sides agree otherwise, with the planning and placement team reviewing the IEP at least annually. What Connecticut adds sits around that annual meeting. Families get written notice at least five school days before any planning and placement team meeting. That notice names the purpose, time plus location of the meeting along with who has been invited. On request, the district shares the assessment results at least three school days before the referral meeting where those results are discussed for the first time. A full copy of the IEP follows within five days of the meeting. Every Connecticut IEP also carries short-term instructional objectives drawn from the measurable annual goals, each with objective criteria, evaluation procedures plus a schedule for checking progress, where federal rules ask for objectives only for students who take alternate assessments. Districts hand out a notice about mediation at the start of each school year then read it aloud at the close of the first planning and placement team meeting of that year.
Source: Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies Section 10-76d-10(e), which hands reevaluation to the IDEA in terms, with the planning and placement team's duty to meet on the IEP at Section 10-76d-10(d) and the opening paragraph of Section 10-76d-11 requiring each board to develop, review and revise the IEP in accordance with the requirements of the IDEA; the three year reevaluation plus the once a year limit are stated at 34 CFR 300.303(b) and the annual review at 34 CFR 300.324(b)(1)(i); Connecticut's own additions at Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies Sections 10-76d-11(a)(1), 10-76d-12(a)(1) plus (a)(2) and 10-76d-13(a)(6), with Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-76d(a)(10)(C)(i), (a)(10)(F)(iii) plus (a)(10)(G); short-term objectives compared against 34 CFR 300.320(a)(2)(ii) portal.ct.gov/-/media/sde/special-education/regulations-of-connecticut-state-agencies-department-of-education-children-requiring-special-educati.pdf
If you disagree in Connecticut
IDEA gives families in every state the same three routes when a disagreement with the school does not resolve at the team table. What changes at the state line is who administers each route, how long you have to file and the local detail below.
The state complaint
Handled by Bureau of Special Education at the Connecticut State Department of Education. Time limit to file: one year from the date of the alleged violation.
The bureau takes written state complaints at its Hartford address or by email to its due process mailbox. The violation named has to have happened within a year of the filing date. A complaint counts as filed once the bureau has it, the required elements are in it plus a copy has gone to the district, so a missing copy to the district pushes back the start of the 60 calendar day investigation clock. A bureau education consultant investigates, sends the district an inquiry letter naming the issues, then issues a written findings letter that directs corrective action where the bureau finds a violation. That findings letter is final with no appeal, though mediation or a due process hearing stays open on issues still in dispute. Anyone writing a complaint can ask the bureau or the Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center for help putting it together.
Source: Connecticut State Department of Education Special Education State Complaint Procedures, which state the sixty calendar day investigation, the filing address plus the one year rule as the department applies it; the federal 60 day baseline at 34 CFR 300.152(a) plus the one year filing window at 34 CFR 300.153(c) portal.ct.gov/-/media/sde/special-education/complaint-resolution-process.pdf
Mediation
Mediation in Connecticut runs through a Mediation Services Coordinator employed inside the Bureau of Special Education, a position state law keeps separate from the department's investigation work. Any party can ask for mediation at any time on any special education question, from identification through the way an IEP is being carried out. The coordinator tells everyone a conflict exists, explains that mediation is voluntary with a neutral mediator, then appoints someone from the state mediator list once all sides agree. Mediators on that list meet a state training standard of 40 hours in mediation skills plus training in special education law, with continuing education every two years. The state bears the cost of the mediation. A signed agreement holds up in state or federal court, while what gets said in the room stays out of any later hearing, since state law bars bureau staff plus listed mediators from carrying mediation information to the people who investigate complaints unless another law requires it. The published request form routes to the bureau's Due Process Unit.
Source: Connecticut General Statutes Sections 10-76z(a) plus (b), 10-76aa(a) plus (b) and 10-76h(f)(1), the first two created by Public Act 23-137 Sections 45 plus 46 with the third amended by Section 47, all effective July 1 2023, with the wall between mediation plus investigation at 10-76z(a)(6)(A); Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies Section 10-76h-5(b); the state bearing the cost, the signed agreement being enforceable in court plus the confidentiality of what is said at 34 CFR 300.506(b)(4), (b)(7) and (b)(8) www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_164.htm
A due process hearing
Time limit to file: two years from the point the family or the district knew or should have known about the issue, with the clock starting later where the family was not given the procedural safeguards notice and the limit set aside where the district misrepresented that it had resolved the problem or withheld information it was required to give.
A hearing request goes in writing to the district with a copy to the department, which then appoints an impartial hearing officer. Two layers set the deadline for that request and they read differently. The statute measures the two years from the district's proposal or refusal, while the state regulation plus the department's own safeguards notice measure from the point the issue was known or should have been known, which is the version the department publishes to families. Hearing officers are paid for the work, though state law keeps them off the payroll of the department, the district or any agency involved with the child. The Bureau of Special Education Due Process Unit takes the filings at its Hartford address or by email. A decision is due within 45 days of the start of the hearing timeline, with extensions available at a party's request. Public Act 25-67 reshaped several pieces of the hearing effective July 1 2025: each side discloses all the claims it will raise at least five business days before the hearing starts, with the hearing officer able to bar a claim held back, testimony plus argument is capped at four days unless a written ruling finds good cause for more, the hearing officer weighs every evaluation put in, plus the written decision carries specific findings on whether the district made reasonable efforts to keep the child in a regular classroom. Connecticut also runs an advisory opinion process, a one day session both sides can request after a hearing is filed, where a hearing officer previews how the issues look without binding anyone. That hearing officer never hears the full case. Appeals from a hearing decision go to the superior court for the judicial district where the child lives.
Source: Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-76h(a)(4), (b), (c)(1) through (c)(3), (d)(1), (d)(4) plus (e), as amended by Public Act 25-67 Sections 18 to 19 effective July 1 2025; Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies Section 10-76h-4(a) for the limitation period as the department applies it plus Section 10-76h-6 for the advisory opinion process; federal baseline at 34 CFR 300.511(e) plus (f) www.cga.ct.gov/2026/sup/chap_164.htm
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Who to contact in Connecticut
- The state special education office. Bureau of Special Education, Connecticut State Department of Education. This is the office that answers questions about Connecticut rules and receives a state complaint.
- Your rights in writing. Procedural Safeguards Notice Required Under IDEA Part B. Every district hands parents this notice at least once a year (34 CFR 300.504). It is the plain summary of what you can ask for at each step.
- Parent training and information center. Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center (CPAC). A parent center is free and federally funded under IDEA. Staff there talk families through the process in their own state at no cost.
- The state rules themselves. Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 164, Part V, headed Special Schools and Classes, where the special education sections run from 10-76a through 10-76ooo with the core definitions plus duties at 10-76a through 10-76ii; the implementing rules sit at Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies Sections 10-76a-1 through 10-76l-1. Chapter 164 is Connecticut's educational opportunities chapter. Its Part V, headed Special Schools and Classes, opens with adult education then carries the special education law: who counts as a child requiring special education, what local boards owe those students until graduation or the end of the school year in which they turn 22, the planning and placement team, the hearing plus mediation system, the state mediator list, the notices a district sends families. The regulations underneath it carry the working detail, among them the 45 school day timeline, the components every Connecticut IEP includes plus the rule that districts use the state's own IEP form.
Child Find in Connecticut
Connecticut's handoff from early intervention has its own shape. The Birth to Three transition meeting happens at least 90 days before a child's third birthday, or as much as nine months ahead where everyone agrees, with the family choosing where it is held. The school district joins that meeting even when school is out for the summer, then runs the first planning and placement team meeting, which can follow immediately. A referral that arrives through Birth to Three also runs on its own clock rather than the 45 school day count. The department counts a district as on time where the IEP is in place on or before the third birthday. The 45 school day rule takes over only where the referral lands less than 90 days before that birthday. Families whose child turns three on or after May 1 have a further option, early intervention services over three, which keeps early intervention going into the start of the school year rather than switching services mid-summer. Connecticut also stretched one eligibility category past preschool. Since July 1 2025 a child aged three through eight can qualify under developmental delay, where the range used to stop at five, so a first grader with a significant delay no longer needs a named disability category to be found eligible. Districts additionally track children who leave Birth to Three and are found not eligible for preschool special education, sending reminders at six months then at a year where a family has not finished the developmental screening, with a planning and placement team meeting scheduled where that monitoring points to a delay.
Source: Connecticut Birth to Three System with the Bureau of Special Education, transition meeting guidance of January 2019, for the 90 day to nine month window, the school joining out of session plus the family choosing the location; Connecticut State Department of Education Evaluation Timelines user guide for the Birth to Three referral clock; Connecticut State Department of Education early childhood special education page for early intervention services over three; Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-76a(5)(C) as amended by Public Act 25-67 Section 1 effective July 1 2025 for developmental delay through age eight; Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-76d(a)(10)(H) with Section 17a-248e(a)(4) for the monitoring plus the reminders portal.ct.gov/-/media/sde/special-education/early/transition-meeting---birth-to-three-into-special-education-infographic-january-2019.pdf
