IDEA Complaint Decision 25-025

On February 13, 2025, the Department of Public Instruction (department) received a complaint under state and federal special education law from #### (parent) against the #### (district). This is the department’s decision regarding that complaint. The issues are whether the district, during the 2024-25 school year, properly responded to a parent request for a special education evaluation and properly provided prior written notice regarding procedural safeguards.

 

Within 15 business days of receiving a request to evaluate a student for eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a school district must send to the student’s parent’s a request to evaluate the student. Wis. Stat. 115.777. The evaluation must be completed by the district within 60 days of receiving the parents’ consent to conduct the evaluation. Wis. Stat. 115.78. Whenever a school district refuses to initiate or change the identification, evaluation, educational placement, or provision of a free appropriate public education to a student, the district must provide the parents written notice, including a statement that the parents and student have protections under procedural safeguards specified in the IDEA regulations. 34 CFR § 300.503.

 

The student who is the subject of this complaint has attended a virtual charter school operated by the district during the 2024-25 school year. Prior to the 2024-25 school year, the student’s previous school district conducted an IDEA evaluation and determined the student was not eligible for special education services. In September 2024 the student’s parents requested an evaluation of the student from the district operating the virtual charter school. District staff replied in writing to the parents that the district would not conduct an evaluation of the student because the student’s last evaluation had occurred less than one year ago. In denying the parents’ request for an evaluation district staff did not inform the parents of the protections available to them under the IDEA procedural safeguards. The district’s denial of the parents’ evaluation request was based on a staff member’s misapplication of the IDEA requirement contained in 34 CFR § 300. 303(b) which limits reevaluations to once a year unless the parent and district agree otherwise. However, since the evaluation from the student’s previous school district had determined the student did not have a disability, the district operating the virtual charter school should have processed the parent’s request as an initial evaluation. The limit of conducting an evaluation once per year applies only to reevaluations, not initial special education evaluations.

 

The district agrees that it did not respond appropriately to the request for a special education evaluation or properly provide notice regarding the procedural safeguards available to the parents. As of the date of this decision, the district has provided the parents with information about their procedural safeguards and begun the evaluation process for the student.

 

The district is directed to complete the student’s evaluation and provide the department a copy within 10 days of the eligibility determination. If the student is determined eligible, the student’s individualized education program (IEP) team shall identify the compensatory services necessary to address the results of the delayed evaluation and shall document those services in the student’s initial IEP. The district shall provide the department a copy of the IEP within 10 days of its development.

 

All noncompliance identified above must be corrected as soon as possible but in no case, more than one year from the date of this decision. This concludes our review of this complaint. This decision is final for the IDEA State Complaint process. These issues may be addressed through other dispute resolutions, including mediation and due process hearings. For more information, visit the department’s website at http://dpi.wi.gov/sped/dispute-resolution or contact the special education team at (608) 266-1781.