How to File a Special Education Complaint with Arkansas DESE

Your child's IEP says they receive 60 minutes of speech therapy per week. Eight weeks into the school year, you find out they've had three sessions. The school apologizes, says the therapist left and they're "working on it." That is not a scheduling inconvenience — it is a federal and state violation. And you have a direct path to force corrective action that does not require hiring an attorney.

Filing a state complaint with the Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is one of the most underused and most effective tools available to Arkansas parents. When a school commits a clear procedural violation — missed timelines, unimplemented IEP services, failure to issue required notices — DESE investigates and orders the district to fix it. The burden of investigation falls on the state agency, not on you.

What a State Complaint Actually Covers

A DESE state complaint addresses violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or the state's implementing regulations. The key word is "violation" — a specific rule the district broke, not merely a disagreement about what services are appropriate.

Common grounds for a complaint in Arkansas include:

• Failing to complete the initial evaluation within 60 calendar days of receiving signed parental consent
• Not holding the referral conference within 21 days of a written evaluation request
• Failing to implement IEP services that are already written into the document
• Not issuing a Notice of Action (NoA) when required after proposing or refusing a change
• Missing the 10-school-day window for conducting a Manifestation Determination Review
• Denying a parent access to their child's educational records under FERPA

A state complaint is not the right vehicle if your dispute is about whether the IEP is good enough — whether the goals are ambitious enough or whether the placement is appropriate. Those substantive disagreements belong in mediation or due process. But if the school is simply not doing what it already agreed to do, a complaint is exactly the right tool.

The One-Year Filing Window

Complaints must allege a violation that occurred within the past 12 months. If you discovered in March that speech services were being skipped since September, your window is still open. But delays matter — the earlier you file, the more complete the record tends to be.

The complaint must be in writing and signed. It cannot be filed anonymously, though DESE will protect identifying information where possible during the investigation.

What Your Complaint Must Include

Under Arkansas DESE Section 12.00 and the corresponding federal regulations, a valid state complaint must contain:

1. A statement of the alleged violation. Be specific. Cite the rule or requirement that was broken. "The district failed to provide speech-language pathology services as written in the IEP" is actionable. "The school doesn't listen to me" is not.

2. The facts underlying the allegation. Include dates. If services were supposed to start September 1 and did not start until November 3, say that. Attach any documentation you have — session logs, emails from the therapist, IEP pages showing the service requirement.

3. A proposed resolution. You must state what you want DESE to order. Common resolutions include: delivery of the missed service minutes as compensatory education, a corrective action plan, staff training, or revised procedures. Compensatory education — makeup service hours for those missed — is the most common remedy in service-delivery complaints.

4. Contact information. Your name, address, and how to reach you.

Submit the complaint in writing to:

DESE Dispute Resolution Section Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education Four Capitol Mall Little Rock, AR 72201

You can also request contact information directly from DESE's special education office or from Disability Rights Arkansas, which can help you format the complaint correctly.

What Happens After You File

Once DESE receives your complaint, they assign an investigator and have exactly 60 calendar days to complete the investigation and issue a written final decision. That clock does not extend — it is a firm federal requirement.

During the investigation, the investigator will contact the district, review records, and may interview staff or request documentation. You are entitled to submit additional evidence during this period if relevant new information surfaces.

If DESE finds the district in violation, the final decision will order corrective action. This can include:

• Specific compensatory education hours to be provided within a defined timeframe
• A corrective action plan the district must implement and report on
• Policy changes or staff training
• Required documentation of future compliance

If DESE does not find a violation, they issue a written finding explaining why. You can still pursue other remedies after receiving a DESE complaint outcome — filing a complaint does not waive your right to mediation or due process.

Why This Route Is Often Smarter Than Due Process

Due process hearings are adversarial, expensive, and time-consuming. They are appropriate for substantive disputes about FAPE — disagreements that require a hearing officer to weigh competing expert testimony and make a legal judgment.

For procedural violations, a state complaint is faster, free, and places the investigative burden on DESE rather than on you. You do not need an attorney to file one. You do not need to prove anything beyond the factual timeline of what happened and what was required. The state does the digging.

One strategic note: you can file a state complaint and pursue mediation simultaneously. You cannot file a state complaint on the same issue during a pending due process proceeding, but short of that overlap, you can pursue both avenues in parallel.

For substantive IEP disputes — disagreements about whether services were appropriate, not just whether they were delivered — the free mediation offered through the Arkansas Special Education Mediation Project (ASEMP) at the UALR Bowen School of Law is a strong first step before going to due process. State complaints and ASEMP mediation each cover different territory, and knowing which tool fits which problem is half the battle.

Before You File: Build Your Documentation

The strongest complaints come with documentation already assembled. Before you submit anything, gather:

• The current IEP, including the services page
• Any service logs, attendance records, or session notes you can access (request these via a FERPA records request if the school has not provided them)
• Your own log of contacts with the school — dates, who you spoke to, what they said
• Any emails, letters, or notices the district sent you
• A timeline reconstructing when services were supposed to begin, when they actually began (or did not), and when you first raised the issue

If you do not have service logs, request them in writing before filing. Send an email to the special education director stating that under FERPA you are requesting all records related to service delivery for your child for the current school year, including attendance logs for related services and any communication with service providers about your child's case.

This paper trail does more than support your complaint. It signals to the district that you are documenting systematically — which often prompts faster voluntary compliance even before DESE finishes its investigation.

If your situation involves multiple violations or you are navigating a more complex dispute alongside the complaint, the Arkansas IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook walks through the specific request templates, notice-of-action scripts, and escalation pathways that Arkansas parents use to build that record effectively.

The Practical Truth About State Complaints

Filing a DESE complaint does not automatically fix your relationship with the school. Investigations can feel intrusive to district staff, and some administrators respond defensively. The goal is not to punish the district — it is to get services delivered to your child.

That said, districts in Arkansas do take DESE complaints seriously. A finding of noncompliance enters the state's compliance record for the district and can affect federal funding reviews. Schools have strong institutional incentives to resolve complaints promptly and avoid repeat findings.

Arkansas had 73,087 school-age students on IEPs as of the 2025-2026 school year — roughly 15.70% of all public school students. That scale, combined with a severe shortage of related service providers and ongoing budget pressures from the LEARNS Act, means service delivery gaps are not rare. When they happen to your child, you do not need to accept them as unavoidable. You have a direct administrative pathway to require the state to act.

Use it.

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