Arkansas Special Education Evaluation: Timelines, Rights, and Process

If you have asked your child's school to evaluate them for special education services and nothing has happened, or if you're trying to figure out what an evaluation actually involves and what the school is required to do, here is how Arkansas's special education evaluation process works — specifically.

How to Request an Evaluation in Arkansas

Your request for a special education evaluation must be in writing to start the formal timeline. Verbal requests at a meeting or phone calls do not trigger the procedural clocks. Send a written request — email is sufficient — to the district's special education coordinator and your child's principal.

Use clear language: "I am requesting a comprehensive special education evaluation for [child's name] in all areas of suspected disability, including [list areas if known — academic achievement, cognitive ability, speech/language, behavior, etc.]." Specificity prevents the district from conducting a narrower evaluation than your child's situation warrants.

Once the district receives your written referral, Arkansas DESE rules require:

• The district to schedule a referral conference within 7 calendar days
• The referral conference to be held within 21 calendar days of the written referral

The referral conference is where the team decides whether to conduct an evaluation and what the evaluation will cover.

The 60-Day Calendar Clock

Once you sign consent for the evaluation, the district has 60 calendar days to complete all assessments. This is the single most important timeline to understand, because Arkansas's clock has characteristics that differ from what parents often expect.

The 60-day window runs on calendar days — not business days, not school days. It does not pause for weekends, school holidays, or any school break including summer recess. If you sign evaluation consent on December 1, the deadline is January 30 regardless of winter break.

This matters because districts sometimes claim they cannot complete evaluations during summer or over extended breaks. That claim is not supported by Arkansas DESE rules. If the clock is running, it is running.

What the Evaluation Must Cover

The evaluation must assess your child in all areas of suspected disability. Arkansas districts are not permitted to limit the evaluation scope to only the areas they choose — if your referral identifies multiple areas of concern, the evaluation plan should address all of them.

Evaluation domains that may be relevant depending on your child's situation:

• Academic achievement — reading, math, written language, compared to grade-level peers
• Cognitive ability — intellectual functioning, processing speed, working memory
• Speech and language — articulation, receptive and expressive language, pragmatics
• Social-emotional and behavioral — functional behavior assessment, social skills rating scales, teacher/parent behavior checklists
• Motor skills — fine and gross motor, sensory processing (if OT evaluation is relevant)
• Adaptive behavior — daily living skills, especially relevant for students suspected of intellectual disability
• Vision and hearing — basic screenings before any other evaluation

All evaluations are conducted at no cost to you. The district may not charge you for any evaluation or assessment conducted as part of the special education process.

You have the right to provide information to the evaluators — share records, reports from outside professionals, and your own observations. You also have the right to receive copies of all evaluation reports before the eligibility meeting so you have time to review them.

Arkansas Disability Categories

Arkansas recognizes 12 disability categories under DESE rules. This is one fewer than the federal IDEA list because Arkansas combines hearing impairment and deafness into a single category (Deaf/Hard of Hearing) rather than treating them separately.

The 12 categories: Autism, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Developmental Delay (ages 3–9 only), Emotional Disturbance, Intellectual Disability, Multiple Disabilities, Orthopedic Impairment, Other Health Impairment, Specific Learning Disability, Speech or Language Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury, Visual Impairment.

Current enrollment data in Arkansas shows the most common categories: Specific Learning Disability (4.09% of all enrolled students), Speech or Language Impairment (3.69%), Other Health Impairment (2.67%), Intellectual Disability (1.76%), and Autism (1.36%). Across all categories, 73,087 Arkansas school-age students currently have IEPs — 15.70% of total enrollment.

If the District Refuses to Evaluate

If the district decides not to conduct an evaluation, they are required to give you prior written notice — a written document explaining the reasons for the refusal and your procedural rights. You are not required to accept a refusal.

Your options if the district refuses:

• File a state complaint with DESE — free, no attorney required, DESE must investigate within 60 days
• Request mediation — free, voluntary, both parties meet with a neutral mediator
• Request an independent educational evaluation (IEE) — if the district has conducted an evaluation you believe is inadequate, you can request an IEE at public expense
• Request a due process hearing — the formal adversarial proceeding under IDEA

Start with a state complaint or mediation before escalating to due process — they are faster and free.

If You Disagree With the Evaluation Results

If the district completes an evaluation and you disagree with the results or methodology, you have the right to request an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) at public expense. This is a separate evaluation conducted by a qualified examiner who is not employed by the district.

The district must either fund the IEE or file for a due process hearing to defend its own evaluation. If the district files for hearing and prevails, you can still obtain an IEE at your own expense, but the district is not required to pay for it.

An IEE is worth requesting when: the district's evaluation missed a suspected disability area, the evaluator did not observe your child in the classroom, the assessment instruments used were inappropriate for your child's profile, or the results conflict significantly with outside professional evaluations you have obtained.

Arkansas-Specific Patterns to Know

Arkansas parents frequently encounter one of two evaluation problems:

Delayed referral conferences. Some districts sit on written referrals without scheduling the required referral conference within 7 days. If this happens, follow up in writing referencing the timeline and ask for confirmation of the scheduled conference date.

Evaluation scope narrowing. Districts sometimes propose evaluations that cover only the most obvious area of disability and omit others. If your written referral mentioned multiple concerns and the evaluation plan only covers one, request in writing that the plan be expanded before you sign consent.

The Arkansas IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a template evaluation request letter, a checklist for reviewing evaluation plans before signing consent, and a guide to requesting an IEE — with Arkansas DESE contact information and the state complaint process explained step by step.

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