Wisconsin 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
- One year
How long does a school in Wisconsin have to complete an IEP evaluation?
Wisconsin keeps the federal 60 calendar day window for deciding whether a child is a child with a disability, counted from the day a school district receives written parental consent to assess or sends notice that no additional assessments are needed. A shorter clock runs ahead of that one. A district has 15 business days from receiving a referral to review the existing data and then either request consent to assess or send that no-additional-data notice, so the calendar a family lives through starts at the referral rather than at consent. Once the team finds a child eligible, it has 30 calendar days to write the individualized education program and decide placement, or it can do both at the meeting where eligibility is decided. The 60 day count drops away in only two situations the statute names: a child who enrolls in a new district while an evaluation is under way, where the new district is making sufficient progress toward prompt completion and both sides agree on a completion date, or a parent who repeatedly does not produce the child for the evaluation.
The evaluation timeline in Wisconsin
| 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)). Wisconsin keeps that default rather than setting a timeframe of its own.
Wisconsin follows the federal 60 calendar day default for determining eligibility after consent.
Source: Wis. Stat. 115.78(3)(a) for the 60 day eligibility determination, 115.78(3)(b) for the two situations where that count does not apply, 115.78(3)(c) for the 30 days to the individualized education program and placement, Wis. Stat. 115.777(3)(e) for the 15 business day step from referral to the consent request, plus Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Special Education Evaluation Timelines, for the department's own statement that the 60 day and 30 day counts run in calendar days docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/115/v/78
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 Wisconsin
Wisconsin keeps the federal cadence in its own statute. A reevaluation happens at least once every three years unless a parent and the school district agree it is unnecessary. It happens no more than once a year unless both agree otherwise. The individualized education program is reviewed at least annually to see whether the annual goals are being achieved. A reevaluation also runs whenever the district decides a child's educational or related service needs warrant one or whenever a parent or a teacher asks for one. Where the team finds that no additional data are needed to answer the continuing eligibility question, the district tells the parent that finding with its reasons, along with the parent's right to ask for an assessment anyway. What Wisconsin adds sits inside the annual cycle rather than in the cadence. Transition planning starts two years earlier here than the federal floor. The first individualized education program in effect when a student is 14 carries measurable postsecondary goals drawn from age-appropriate transition assessments plus a description of the transition services needed to reach them, updated every year after that, where the federal rule sets the first such program at 16. Wisconsin runs that layer through a statewide Postsecondary Transition Plan application, with districts submitting each annual plan to the department within 30 days of the meeting. Two more state-specific items ride the same annual review. One is a statement of whether the civics test is appropriate for the student, with any accommodations needed to measure what the student knows. The other starts at least a year before the student turns 18: an annual statement that the student has been told which rights transfer at 18, with the district providing information on supported decision-making and other alternatives to guardianship when that transfer happens.
Source: Wis. Stat. 115.782(4)(a)2. for the three year and once a year limits, 115.782(4)(c) for the notice that no additional data are needed, 115.787(4)(a)1. for the annual review, 115.787(2)(g)1. and 2. for transition planning from age 14, 115.787(2)(em) for the civics test statement, 115.787(2)(g)3. and 115.807(4) for the rights that transfer at 18; federal cadence at 34 CFR 300.303(b) and 34 CFR 300.324(b)(1)(i); federal transition age at 34 CFR 300.320(b); Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Information Update Bulletin 26.01, Transition Planning and Services for Students with IEPs, February 2026, for the Postsecondary Transition Plan application and the 30 day submission docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/115/v/782
If you disagree in Wisconsin
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 Special Education Team, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Time limit to file: One year before the date the department receives the complaint.
A state complaint in Wisconsin is written, signed and sent to the Director of the Special Education Team at the Department of Public Instruction in Madison. The department takes it by mail, by fax or by email to the team's IDEA address. A copy goes to the child's local educational agency at the same time the complaint goes to the department. The complaint has to allege a violation that happened no more than one year before the department receives it. The department investigates and issues a written decision within 60 days of receiving the complaint. That 60 days can run longer where the person complaining and the district agree to try mediation, or where exceptional circumstances apply to that particular complaint. Where the department finds a public agency out of compliance, the agency develops and carries out a plan to correct the violations. A fillable complaint form is published in English, Spanish and Hmong, though nobody is required to use it. The complaint page also carries the department's guidance on generative artificial intelligence. It says the department will accept a complaint drafted that way while recommending against it, because of the risk to the complainant's confidential information and the risk of inaccurate legal citations or conclusions. It asks anyone who does use such a tool to put in only what they would be comfortable sharing publicly and to label the machine-written text with its source and the date.
Source: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, IDEA State Complaints, for the filing address, the one year window, the 60 day decision, the corrective action plan and the guidance on complaints drafted with generative artificial intelligence; department duty to monitor and enforce compliance at Wis. Stat. 115.762(3)(g); federal complaint procedures at 34 CFR 300.151 through 300.153 dpi.wi.gov/sped/dispute-resolution/complain
Mediation
Wisconsin runs mediation as a statutory program rather than an informal offer. The division for learning support at the Department of Public Instruction maintains the program along with a roster of trained mediators, who complete an approved course of at least five days before joining the roster plus at least one day of further training each year. Either a parent or a school district can ask for mediation at any point, before a hearing request is filed or after one is pending. Where only one side asks, the division notifies the other side in writing within 5 business days, with an explanation of mediation, a statement that taking part is voluntary and a request for an answer within another 5 business days. A party asking for mediation may nominate a mediator from the roster. Mediation begins within 21 days of the mediator's appointment unless both sides agree otherwise. The department delivers all of this through the Wisconsin Special Education Mediation System, funded by a department discretionary grant. The grant pays a mediator drawn from that roster, so a roster mediator costs neither the family nor the district anything. The department names one exception: where the two sides cannot agree on anyone from the roster, or where they settle on a mediator who is not on it, the cost falls to them. The same system arranges facilitated individualized education program meetings, where a neutral person keeps a scheduled meeting on track instead of resolving a filed dispute. One intake line covers both.
Source: Wis. Stat. 115.797(2)(a) for the program and the request, 115.797(2)(b) for the 5 business day notice, 115.797(3)(a) for nominating a mediator, 115.797(4)(a) for the roster and the five day training, 115.797(4)(b) for the further day of training each year, 115.797(5)(a) for the 21 day start; Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin Special Education Mediation System, for the discretionary grant, the no-cost mediation with a roster mediator, the exception where the parties go outside the roster and the facilitated meetings dpi.wi.gov/sped/dispute-resolution/wsems
A due process hearing
Time limit to file: One year, measured from the school district's refusal or proposal, or from the date the district gives notice of the right to request a hearing where it had not given that notice earlier.
Wisconsin splits filing from deciding. A parent, or the attorney representing the child, provides the written hearing request to the other party with a copy to the division for learning support at the Department of Public Instruction. The department then appoints the hearing officer under a contract with the Division of Hearings and Appeals, a central panel office attached to the Department of Administration for administrative purposes only, whose administrative law judges hear cases for many state agencies rather than working for the agency being challenged. State rule narrows who can take the appointment: nobody employed by the department or by a public agency involved in the child's education or care, nobody employed by or under contract to a school district, a cooperative educational service agency or a county children with disabilities education board, nobody holding a personal or professional interest that would conflict with objectivity in the hearing. The roster is limited to attorneys licensed to practice law in Wisconsin who have completed training approved by the division, with a refresher course each year. Those two rule requirements come from the chapter as the Legislature had it published in February 2026. A department-wide cleanup rule, Clearinghouse Rule 26-006, took effect on August 1 2026 and touches chapter PI 11 along with eighteen other chapters, so the hearing officer rule may have moved with it. The filing window is where Wisconsin departs from the federal default. State law allows one year rather than two, measured from the district's refusal or proposal about a child's evaluation, individualized education program, placement or the provision of a free appropriate public education. Where the district had not already given notice of the right to request a hearing, that year runs instead from the date the district gives the notice. The state's own procedural safeguards notice states the same one year limit in the federal knew-or-should-have-known form. A resolution meeting comes first, within 15 days of the district receiving the request, unless both sides waive it in writing or agree to use mediation instead. The hearing officer issues a decision within 45 days after the end of the 30 day resolution period, with any extension granted for cause written into the record. The local educational agency pays the cost of the hearing. A party who disagrees with the decision brings a civil action in the circuit court for the county where the child lives or in a federal district court, with the circuit court action commenced within 45 days after the decision is served.
Source: Wis. Stat. 115.80(1)(a)1. for the one year filing window, 115.80(1)(d) for filing with the division, 115.80(2) for appointing the hearing officer, 115.80(2m)(a) and (2m)(c) for the resolution meeting and the waiver, 115.80(6) for the 45 day decision and the cost, 115.80(7) for the 45 day circuit court appeal; Wis. Admin. Code PI 11.12(1) for the impartiality exclusions, PI 11.12(2)(a) for the Wisconsin law licence and the completed training, PI 11.12(2)(b) for the initial training and the annual refresher; Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, About Due Process Hearings, for the contract with the Division of Hearings and Appeals; Wisconsin Department of Administration, Division of Hearings and Appeals, for the central panel model; Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, administrative rules in process, for Clearinghouse Rule 26-006 and its August 1 2026 effective date; federal two year default at 34 CFR 300.507(a)(2), which allows a state its own explicit time limitation docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/115/v/80
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Who to contact in Wisconsin
- The state special education office. Special Education Team, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. This is the office that answers questions about Wisconsin rules and receives a state complaint.
- Your rights in writing. Procedural Safeguards Notice, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (a Word document whose own running header reads Part B Procedural Safeguards Notice, listed with Spanish and Hmong editions on the department's parent rights page). 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. Wisconsin FACETS. 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. Wis. Stat. ch. 115, subch. V, Children with Disabilities, opening at 115.758, together with Wis. Admin. Code ch. PI 11, Children with Disabilities. Subchapter V of chapter 115 is where Wisconsin writes its own special education law, opening with a construction rule that the subchapter be read consistently with the federal act. It covers the division for learning support at the Department of Public Instruction, district duties and district plans, referrals, the individualized education program team and its timeline, evaluations, the content and review of the program, placement, procedural safeguards, mediation, due process hearings, the transfer of rights at 18 plus the state aid that pays for the programs. Chapter PI 11 of the administrative code carries the department's rules underneath it, including the eligibility determination rule cross-referenced from the evaluation statute and the impartiality and qualification rules for hearing officers.
Child Find in Wisconsin
Wisconsin turns child find into a named duty on particular adults rather than a general district obligation. A physician, a nurse, a psychologist, a social worker or an administrator of a social agency who reasonably believes that a child brought to them for services has a disability refers that child to the local educational agency. So does a person licensed by the department who works for a local educational agency and reasonably believes a child has a disability. Anyone else holding that belief may refer a child without being required to. Before submitting a required referral, the person tells the child's parent that the referral is coming, so a family hears about it from the professional first. Referrals are written and give the reasons for the belief. Each local educational agency keeps written procedures for accepting and processing referrals, dates the receipt of each one, gives its licensed staff in-service on those procedures and tells parents plus the outside professionals who are required to refer about its referral and evaluation procedures at least once a year. The department's division for learning support carries the statewide duty to see that children with disabilities in Wisconsin are identified, located and evaluated, including children who are not yet 3 years old.
Source: Wis. Stat. 115.777(1)(a) and (1)(b) for the required referrers, 115.777(1)(c) for a permitted referral by anyone else, 115.777(2)(a) and (2)(b) for the written referral and telling the parent first, 115.777(3)(a) to (3)(d) for district procedures and the annual notice, 115.762(3)(a) for the statewide identification duty docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/115/v/777
