Michigan IEP Evaluation Timeline, Dispute Routes and Parent Resources (2026)
- Evaluation window
- 30 school days
- The clock starts at
- Parental consent
- State complaint deadline
- One year
- Due process deadline
- Two years
How long does a school in Michigan have to complete an IEP evaluation?
Michigan counts the initial evaluation window in school days rather than calendar days. Once a district receives signed parental consent, the state rule allows 30 school days to finish the evaluation, hold the IEP team meeting and put a written offer of services or a finding of ineligibility in the parent's hands. Shorter clocks sit on each side of that one: 10 school days for the district to answer a written request with prior written notice, then 10 school days for the parent to consent in writing to the services offered, then 15 school days from the parent's receipt of that written offer for the agreed programs to start. Snow days, teacher workdays and other days without instruction fall outside the count, so consent signed in December covers more of the calendar than consent signed in September. A family that disagrees has three formal routes: a written state complaint the Office of Special Education investigates with the intermediate school district, free mediation through Special Education Mediation Services, or a due process complaint decided by an administrative law judge at the Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules.
The evaluation timeline in Michigan
| Initial evaluation window | 30 school days |
|---|---|
| The clock starts at | parental consent to evaluate |
| Against the federal rule | A timeframe Michigan 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 Michigan has done, so the window above is the one that applies here.
Michigan shortens the federal default sharply to 30 school days, covering the evaluation and eligibility decision through the district's initial offer of services. A school day excludes snow days, teacher workdays and other non-instructional days.
Source: Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education (MARSE) R 340.1721b(1)(a), with the 10 school day answer to a written request also at R 340.1721 and the written extension measured in school days at R 340.1721b(1)(a)(i) and (ii) www.michigan.gov/mde/services/special-education/laws-regs/marse/p2/r340-1721b
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 Michigan
Michigan keeps the federal cadence. A reevaluation happens at least once every three years unless the parent and the district agree it is unnecessary, no more than once a year unless both agree otherwise, with the IEP reviewed at least once a year. The department's January 2023 reevaluation guidance restates those limits without adding a state cycle. It also notes that the three year date does not reset when a district runs an evaluation to add or remove a service. What Michigan adds sits inside the IEP itself. Every Michigan IEP carries measurable short-term objectives alongside the annual goals, where the federal rule asks for benchmarks or short-term objectives only for students who take alternate assessments aligned to alternate academic achievement standards. Every Michigan IEP also documents that the team considered extended school year services, with a four part test the team works through. Any participant who disagrees with what the team decided can write the reasons on the IEP report or attach a written statement to it.
Source: MARSE R 340.1721e(1)(a), R 340.1721e(1)(b), R 340.1721e(2) and R 340.1721e(3); federal cadence at 34 CFR 300.303(b) and 34 CFR 300.324(b)(1)(i); the federal short-term objective limit at 34 CFR 300.320(a)(2)(ii); MDE Office of Special Education policy guidance, Special Education Reevaluation Process, January 2023 www.michigan.gov/mde/services/special-education/laws-regs/marse/p2/r340-1721e
If you disagree in Michigan
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 Office of Special Education, Michigan Department of Education. Time limit to file: One year from the date of the alleged violation.
A state complaint is written, signed and delivered to the Office of Special Education in Lansing by mail, fax, email or hand delivery, with a copy going to the public agency at the same time. Anyone may file one, including an organization. The person filing does not have to live in Michigan. The grounds reach wider than the federal act alone: a complaint can allege a violation of the federal law, of the Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education or of the Michigan Revised School Code as it applies to special education. A complaint can also allege that an agency failed to implement an IEP, an administrative law judge's decision, an intermediate school district plan or the state's application for federal funds. The investigation is shared work. The department's case manager gathers information alongside a representative of the intermediate school district when the complaint names one of that district's member districts. A second department investigator fills that seat instead when the complaint names the intermediate school district itself or when the department sees a possible conflict of interest. A written final decision follows within 60 calendar days of filing, with corrective action ordered where the department finds noncompliance.
Source: MARSE R 340.1851(2) and (3), R 340.1853(1) to (5) and R 340.1854(1); MDE Office of Special Education, Special Education State Complaints: Procedures and Model Forms, May 2023 www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/mde/specialeducation/DRO/StateComplaints_ProceduresModelForms.pdf
Mediation
Michigan delivers mediation through Special Education Mediation Services, which the department names as the state approved option and lists beside the complaint and hearing routes. It is an IDEA grant funded initiative through the Michigan Department of Education Office of Special Education, staffed by trained independent mediators who work for neither the department nor an intermediate school district nor a local district. Mediators come from a roster held across the state and are assigned on an impartial basis rather than picked by either side. Mediation costs a family nothing. It stays voluntary, so both sides agree before it starts. Either a parent or a public agency can ask for it before or after a complaint is filed. The same service also arranges facilitated IEP meetings, where a neutral person keeps a scheduled meeting on track rather than resolving a filed dispute. One request line covers both. Where a state complaint is already open, the parent and the agency can jointly ask the department in writing to extend the 60 day decision clock while they try mediation.
Source: MARSE R 340.1724d(1); MDE Office of Special Education, Special Education Dispute Resolution Options, June 7 2021; MDE Office of Special Education, Special Education State Complaints: Procedures and Model Forms, May 2023, extension for mediation; Special Education Mediation Services, its own About and Mediation pages, for the funding line and the mediator roster www.michigan.gov/mde/-/media/Project/Websites/mde/specialeducation/DRO/DisputeResolutionOptions.pdf
A due process hearing
Time limit to file: Two years from the date the parent or the public agency knew or should have known about the action the complaint is about.
Michigan separates filing from deciding. The written complaint goes to the Office of Special Education with a copy to the other party, then the department refers it to the Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules, which sits inside the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs rather than inside the education department. An administrative law judge there decides whether the complaint is sufficient before hearing the case. That hearings office describes its judges as attorneys in good standing with the State Bar of Michigan and full time employees who may not hold outside work that would conflict with their impartiality. The state rule has the department and that office keep those judges trained in special education law, rules, policy and practice. A resolution meeting comes first, held within 15 days of the district receiving the complaint or within 7 days for an expedited complaint, unless both sides waive it in writing or agree to use mediation instead. The judge issues the final administrative decision, since Michigan runs no second level of administrative review. The state rule measures the appeal from the mailing date: a party has 90 days after the final decision and order is mailed to take the case to court, either the state circuit court where the child lives or where the school sits, or a federal district court. Where the order stands, the public agency carries it out within 15 school days of receiving it unless the order sets another date. The two year filing limit comes from the federal rule, which Michigan's own rule leaves unchanged. It lifts where a district misrepresented that it had resolved the problem or held back information the parent should have received.
Source: MARSE R 340.1724f(1), (3), (4) and (5) for filing, the referral to the hearings office, the 90 day appeal from the mailing date and the 15 school day implementation; MARSE R 340.1724h for judge training; two year limit at 34 CFR 300.507(a)(2), which MARSE does not vary; Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules, Education Hearings, for the judges' qualifications and the courts an appeal goes to; MDE Office of Special Education, Special Education Due Process Complaint Procedures, June 2022, for the sufficiency ruling and the resolution meeting timing www.michigan.gov/mde/services/special-education/laws-regs/marse/p2/r340-1724f
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Who to contact in Michigan
- The state special education office. Office of Special Education, Michigan Department of Education. This is the office that answers questions about Michigan rules and receives a state complaint.
- Your rights in writing. Procedural Safeguards Notice, Michigan Department of Education Office of Special Education (cover date October 16 2018). 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. Michigan Alliance for Families. 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. Michigan Revised School Code, 1976 PA 451, article 3, parts 29 to 31 (MCL 380.1701 to 380.1766). Article 3 of the Revised School Code covers school district powers and duties across many subjects. Special education sits in three of its parts: part 29 for the state board and the superintendent, part 30 for intermediate school boards and part 31 for local school boards. Section 1701 has the superintendent of public instruction require and approve each intermediate school district's special education plan. Section 1711(1)(a) has the intermediate school board build that plan with its constituent districts. Section 1711(1)(f) has it keep a record of every resident student with a disability under 26 who has not graduated. Section 1751(1) has the local district provide programs for each student on that record in line with the plan. The Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education, R 340.1701 to R 340.1862, were promulgated June 27 2024 under sections 1701 and 1703 of the code plus Executive Reorganization Order No. 1996-7.
Child Find in Michigan
Michigan folds the birth to three years into its own special education rules rather than leaving them to a separate chapter. Part 10 of the state rules has eligibility for a child from birth to age three decided by and documented in an individualized family service plan. The same rule sets a state floor for those services of not less than 72 clock hours over one year, counted from the day the agency receives signed parental consent to provide them. Early intervention itself reaches families through Early On, which the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement and Potential runs as the state lead agency for Part C of the federal act. At the other end of the span a student stays eligible while they are not more than 25 years old on September 1 of the school year of enrollment and have not graduated from high school, so a student who turns 26 after September 1 finishes that school year. Federal Part B runs from age 3 through 21 while federal Part C covers birth to three, so Michigan's own ceiling sits four years past the federal one. The department puts the same span in plain words on its parent pages: Michigan special education services run from birth through age 25. Intermediate school boards keep the record of every resident student with a disability under 26 who has not graduated, which is the list local districts serve from.
Source: MARSE R 340.1862(1) and R 340.1862(4)(c) for the birth to three layer; MARSE R 340.1702 for the upper age limit; MCL 380.1711(1)(f); federal age span at 34 CFR 300.101(a); MiLEAP Early On Michigan page for the Part C lead agency; MDE Office of Special Education parent resources page for the birth through age 25 wording www.michigan.gov/mde/services/special-education/laws-regs/marse/p10/r340-1862
