School Won't Evaluate Your Child? Here's What the Law Actually Requires

If a school refuses to evaluate your child for special education — or keeps saying "let's wait and see" — federal law is on your side in three specific ways: the school has an affirmative duty to identify children who may need help (called Child Find), you have the right to request an evaluation at any time, and once you give written consent the school is on a legal clock to finish the evaluation. A school that wants to say no must say no in writing, with reasons — and that written refusal opens your path to challenge it.

Here is how each of those rights works, and exactly what to do with them.

The school's duty exists whether or not you ask

Under the federal Child Find rule, every state must have procedures to ensure that all children with disabilities who need special education are "identified, located, and evaluated" — including children who are passing their classes. The regulation specifically covers children "advancing from grade to grade" (34 CFR 300.111(c)). So if you've been told "your child can't qualify — their grades are fine," that is not what the law says. Good grades do not switch off the school's duty to evaluate a child suspected of having a disability.

Step 1: Put the request in writing

A spoken request to a teacher often starts nothing you can prove. A written, dated request is what starts the legal machinery — and in several states, the clock legally starts on the day the district receives it, not the day you wrote it. Three rules for the request:

1. Address it to the right person. The school principal works in every state we cover, and the district's special education director is usually the other safe addressee. (Two state wrinkles: in New York the formal route is a written referral to the CSE chairperson — a principal who receives one must forward it immediately; in Texas the deadline clock only runs on a written request made to the special education director or a district administrative employee.)
2. Say what you're asking for. One sentence works: "I am requesting a full special education evaluation of my child under IDEA. Please treat this as my formal written request."
3. Keep dated proof of delivery. Email is ideal — it timestamps itself. If you hand-deliver a letter, photograph it and ask for a stamped copy.

Step 2: Know the clock that starts ticking

Once the school receives your written consent to evaluate (consent is a separate form the school must give you), federal law requires the evaluation within 60 calendar days — unless your state has set its own timeline, which then replaces the federal one (34 CFR 300.301(c)(1)). Most of the big states have:

Note the day types — they matter enormously. School-day clocks (Texas, Washington) pause over breaks and summer, and California and Georgia's calendar clocks carry their own break exclusions — so a request made in late spring can lawfully resolve in fall. New York's 60-calendar-day evaluation clock is the exception: it runs straight through, though New York's separate services-arrangement clock runs in school days. If timing is tight (for example, you want results before the next school year), submit your request and return the consent form as early in the spring as possible.

Step 3: If the school says no, make them say it in writing

A school cannot lawfully refuse your evaluation request with a hallway conversation. Any refusal to evaluate triggers the Prior Written Notice requirement (34 CFR 300.503): a written document stating what the school is refusing, why, what information it relied on, and what options it considered. If you get a verbal no, respond with: "Please provide me prior written notice of this refusal under 34 CFR 300.503."

This document matters for two reasons. First, schools sometimes reverse course when asked to commit a refusal to paper. Second, if they don't reverse, the PWN becomes the centerpiece of your next step.

Step 4: Your escalation options (all of them free to start)

• State complaint — a written complaint to your state education agency. The violation must have occurred not more than 1 calendar year before the state receives your complaint (mail time counts against you — file early), and the state must investigate and decide within 60 calendar days (34 CFR 300.151–153). No lawyer needed.
• Mediation — voluntary, free to parents (the state pays the mediator), available at any time (34 CFR 300.506).
• Due process complaint — the formal route, with a 2-year filing window from when you knew or should have known of the problem (34 CFR 300.507(a)(2)). Some protections vary by state, and Georgia requires a licensed attorney if you want someone to represent you at the hearing itself.

Many evaluation disputes never reach a hearing. A refusal documented in a PWN gives you something concrete to challenge — and some schools would rather reconsider than defend a thin refusal on paper.

What "wait and see" usually means — and why you don't have to accept it

Schools often propose intervention programs (RTI or MTSS) before evaluating. Those programs can genuinely help — but the U.S. Department of Education's special education office has stated that RTI may not be used to delay or deny an evaluation for a child suspected of having a disability, and federal regulations let a parent request an initial evaluation at any time (34 CFR 300.301(b)). The school can run interventions and evaluate at the same time. We cover this tactic in detail in When the school says "RTI first" — how long is too long?.

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Sources

• 34 CFR 300.111 — Child Find
• 34 CFR 300.301 — Initial evaluations
• 34 CFR 300.503 — Prior written notice
• 34 CFR 300.151–153 — State complaint procedures
• State detail pages: California · Georgia · New York · Texas

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.