How to Request a Special Education Evaluation in California

In California, once the school district receives your written request for a special education assessment, it has 15 calendar days to give you a proposed assessment plan (Ed Code §56043(a), §56321(a)). You then have at least 15 calendar days to decide whether to sign it — and once the district receives your signed consent, it has 60 calendar days to complete the assessment and hold the IEP meeting (Ed Code §56344, §56043(f)(1)). The catch parents most often miss: those clocks pause during school breaks longer than 5 school days, so a late-spring request can lawfully stretch into fall.

Here's the whole sequence, step by step.

Step 1: Make the referral — in writing

California defines a "referral for assessment" as a written request (Ed Code §56029), and it can come from you as the parent or guardian — no teacher sign-off needed. If you make the request orally, school staff are required to offer help putting it in writing (5 CCR §3021), but don't wait for that: a short email to the principal or the district's special education office does the job. One sentence is enough:

"I am requesting a special education assessment of my child under the IDEA and California Education Code. Please treat this as my written referral for assessment."

Date it, keep a copy, and note when the district received it — the 15-day clock runs from receipt of the referral.

One trap to know: Ed Code §56303 says a student should be referred "only after the resources of the regular education program have been considered" — and some districts use that line (or a student study team process) to slow-walk requests. It does not authorize ignoring or delaying your written referral. The 15-day assessment-plan clock starts anyway.

Step 2: The assessment plan — 15 calendar days

Within 15 calendar days of your referral, the district must develop and give you a proposed assessment plan — the document laying out the assessment the district proposes (Ed Code §56321(a)). Two timing wrinkles, both written into the statute:

  • Days between school sessions or terms, and school vacations longer than 5 school days, don't count toward the 15.
  • If you make the referral in the statute's end-of-year window — "10 days or less" before the school year ends, in the law's own unqualified wording — the plan is instead due within 10 days after the next school year starts (§56321(a)).

The plan must be in language you can easily understand, and in your native language unless that's clearly not feasible (§56321(b)).

Step 3: Your decision window — at least 15 calendar days

You have at least 15 calendar days from receiving the plan to decide (§56321(c)(4)). "At least" means it's a floor on what the district must give you, not a deadline you can violate — you may take longer. But know the tradeoff: the district's 60-day evaluation clock doesn't start until your signed consent is received. If you want results before the next school year, sign and return the plan quickly, and keep dated proof of when you returned it.

Step 4: Assessment + IEP meeting — 60 calendar days

From the date the district receives your written consent, it has 60 calendar days to complete the assessment and hold the IEP eligibility meeting (Ed Code §56344(a), §56043(f)(1)) — again, not counting days between sessions/terms or vacations over 5 school days. A consent signed in late May can therefore lawfully produce an IEP meeting well into fall. And §56344 has its own end-of-year rule: for a referral made "30 days or less" before the school year ends (the statute's unqualified wording), the IEP is due within 30 days after the next year starts.

If the district misses these deadlines without a written extension you agreed to, that is a procedural violation you can raise — see the escalation options below.

What if the school says no?

A district that refuses to assess must give you prior written notice explaining the refusal, the reasons, and the information it relied on (Ed Code §56500.4, incorporating the federal PWN rule). A verbal "we don't think an assessment is needed" is not the end of the road — ask for the refusal in writing. Districts sometimes reconsider when asked to commit a refusal to paper; if they don't, the written notice becomes the foundation of your complaint.

Escalation options in California

  • CDE compliance complaint — file directly with the California Department of Education (not the district's general complaint process — special-ed complaints left that system in 2020). One-year lookback; CDE must issue a written decision within 60 calendar days (Ed Code §56043(p)).
  • Mediation-only — a voluntary, no-attorneys pre-hearing track: a mediation conference scheduled within 15 calendar days and completed within 30 calendar days of your request (Ed Code §56500.3, §56043(q)). It does not pause the due process filing window.
  • Due process hearing — filed with the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH); 2-year window from when you knew or had reason to know of the problem (Ed Code §56505(l)).

A note on the new K-2 reading screeners

Since the 2025-26 school year, California schools screen all K-2 students annually for reading-difficulty risk, including dyslexia risk (Ed Code §53008). Two guardrails in that law matter here: a screener result is not a special education evaluation, and screening may not be used to delay a referral. If your child was flagged — or wasn't, but you're still concerned — your right to request an assessment is unchanged. More on the screener law: California's universal reading screening — a parent's guide.

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IEP Explained provides analysis and preparation tools — you decide and you send. We are not a law firm, we do not provide legal advice or representation, and nothing on this page is legal advice for your specific situation.