Georgia IEP Evaluation Timeline, Dispute Routes and Parent Resources (2026)
- Evaluation window
- 60 calendar days
- The clock starts at
- Parental consent
- State complaint deadline
- One year
- Due process deadline
- Two years
How long does a school in Georgia have to complete an IEP evaluation?
A Georgia school system has 60 calendar days from the day it receives a parent's consent to finish an initial special education evaluation. The state rule stops that clock for holiday periods and other stretches when children are out of school for five consecutive school days. The weekend days on either side drop out too where they touch the holiday. Any summer vacation when most of the system's teachers are not under contract drops out of the count as well, though consent received 30 or more days before the end of the school year still carries the full 60 calendar day window. A referral can come from a parent or from the school's Student Support Team, the interdisciplinary team a separate State Board rule puts in every Georgia school. When a family disagrees with what the system decides, Georgia offers three routes: a written complaint to the Department of Education's Division for Exceptional Children, mediation with a mediator the department keeps under contract, or a due process hearing held by an administrative law judge at the Office of State Administrative Hearings.
The evaluation timeline in Georgia
| Initial evaluation window | 60 calendar days |
|---|---|
| The clock starts at | parental consent to evaluate |
| Against the federal rule | The federal default, unchanged |
IDEA sets a default of 60 calendar days from parental consent for an initial evaluation (34 CFR 300.301(c)(1)). Georgia keeps that default rather than setting a timeframe of its own.
Georgia follows the federal 60 calendar day default. The due date skips periods of 5 or more consecutive days when school is not in session, including summer break.
Source: Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 160-4-7-.04 apps.gadoe.org/sboe/SBOE%20Rules/160-4-7-.04.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 Georgia
Georgia does not set its own cadence here, so the federal defaults are what apply. A reevaluation happens at least once every three years unless the parent and the school agree one is not needed. It happens no more often than once a year unless they agree otherwise (34 CFR 300.303(b)). The IEP team reviews the IEP at least once a year to check progress against the annual goals (34 CFR 300.324(b)(1)).
If you disagree in Georgia
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 Division for Exceptional Children, Georgia Department of Education. Time limit to file: One year from the date of the alleged violation.
Any individual or organization can file, including someone from another state. The complaint is signed and written, it names the requirement the school system is said to have broken, it gives the facts behind that claim and it offers a proposed resolution where one is known. A copy goes to the school system at the same time the complaint goes to the department. The department reviews and investigates the complaint and takes appropriate action within 60 calendar days of receiving it. The department's own comparison chart notes that the 60 days can be extended for unusual circumstances. The rule addresses complaints to the director of the department's special education division at its Atlanta office, using the division name the rule carried when it was adopted. The department publishes a written state complaints parent guide in English, Arabic, simplified Chinese, Hmong, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese, alongside a step by step procedures document for filing.
Source: Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 160-4-7-.12(1), including (1)(a) for the one year window, (1)(b), (1)(c) and (1)(g)1.; Georgia Department of Education dispute resolution page www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/georgia/Ga-Comp-R-Regs-R-160-4-7-.12
Mediation
Mediation in Georgia is voluntary for both sides. Either the parent or the school system can ask for it. The department offers it each time a formal complaint or a due process hearing request comes in. The Georgia Department of Education keeps a list of qualified mediators under contract and assigns one from that list on a random, rotational or other impartial basis. A mediator cannot be an employee of the department or of the school system involved in the child's education or care. The state pays for the process, so a mediation session costs a family nothing. An agreement reached in mediation is written, signed by both sides and enforceable in a Georgia court of competent jurisdiction, in a federal district court or through the state complaint process. What people say during the session stays confidential and cannot be used as evidence in a later due process hearing or civil proceeding. Mediation cannot be used to deny or delay a hearing.
Source: Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 160-4-7-.12(2), including (2)(a), (2)(b), (2)(c)1., (2)(c)2., (2)(e) and (2)(e)1. for the mediator list and the employee bar, (2)(f) for the state bearing the cost and (2)(h) with (2)(h)1. and (2)(h)3.; Georgia Department of Education mediation requests and formal complaints page www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/georgia/Ga-Comp-R-Regs-R-160-4-7-.12
A due process hearing
Time limit to file: Two years from the date the parent or the school system knew or should have known about the action the request is about, with exceptions where the system misrepresented that it had resolved the problem or held back information it was required to give the parent.
The party asking for a hearing gives a copy to the other side at the same time it goes to the state. Where the party filing is not the school system, that copy goes to the system superintendent. A system that receives a request passes it to the Division for Exceptional Children on the day it arrives. The department then contacts the Office of State Administrative Hearings, which assigns an administrative law judge who sets up the hearing with both parties. That judge cannot be an employee of the department or of the school system involved in the child's education or care. Before the hearing the parties are asked whether they will use an Early Resolution Session or mediation. The session is scheduled within 15 days of the request unless both sides waive it in writing or agree to mediate. The resolution period runs up to 30 days. A final decision is reached and mailed to both parties within 45 days after that period ends, unless the judge grants a specific extension at a party's request and names the new decision date in a written order. Either side then has 90 days from the decision to bring a civil action in a state court of competent jurisdiction or in a federal district court. The department publishes hearing decisions from fiscal year 2001 to the present.
Source: Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 160-4-7-.12(3), including (3)(a) and (3)(k) with (3)(k)1. for the two year window and its exceptions, (3)(d)1. for filing, (3)(e) and (3)(e)5. for the 15 day resolution meeting, (3)(f) for the 30 day resolution period, (3)(i)1. for the judge's independence, (3)(t) with (3)(t)3. for the 45 day decision and extensions and (3)(u)1. for the 90 day civil action; Georgia Department of Education due process hearings and decisions page; Office of State Administrative Hearings rules of procedure at Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 616-1-2-.01(1) and 616-1-2-.21(1) www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/georgia/Ga-Comp-R-Regs-R-160-4-7-.12
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Who to contact in Georgia
- The state special education office. Division for Exceptional Children, Georgia Department of Education. This is the office that answers questions about Georgia rules and receives a state complaint.
- Your rights in writing. Parents' Rights, the notice of procedural safeguards published by the Georgia Department of Education, which state rule treats as the same document as the Procedural Safeguards Notice. 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. Parent to Parent of Georgia. 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. Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. Subject 160-4-7, Special Education, whose rules each carry O.C.G.A. 20-2-152 and 20-2-240 in their authority line. Subject 160-4-7 holds Georgia's State Board of Education rules for special education, running from child find and evaluations through eligibility, IEPs, procedural safeguards, discipline and dispute resolution, with the 60 calendar day evaluation timeline sitting at (1)(b)1. of rule 160-4-7-.04. Individual rules name further authority beyond the two sections common to all of them, so 160-4-7-.04 also cites O.C.G.A. 20-2-133, 20-2-150, 20-2-168, 20-2-302 and 20-2-1160.
Child Find in Georgia
Georgia's child find rule asks each school system to publish or announce annual notice in newspapers or other media before it runs any significant activity to identify, locate or evaluate children. The rule then names who that duty reaches: children from birth through age 21, preschool children not yet eligible for state funded kindergarten, children in the system's own schools including public charter schools, children who are still suspected of having a disability even though they are progressing from grade to grade, highly mobile children including migrant children, children detained or incarcerated in city or county facilities, children in home school or home study programs and children whose parents place them in private schools inside the system's boundaries. For children from birth through age three, a system can meet the duty by referring the family to Babies Can't Wait, the early intervention program the Georgia Department of Public Health runs.
Source: Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 160-4-7-.03(2)(b) and (2)(c) www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/georgia/Ga-Comp-R-Regs-R-160-4-7-.03
