Requesting a Special Education Evaluation in Colorado: Timelines, Rights, and Process

Requesting a special education evaluation is how everything starts. Before the IEP, before the eligibility meeting, before any services — there has to be an evaluation. But many Colorado parents don't know how to initiate this process formally, what rights they have once they do, or what happens if the school says their child doesn't need one. Here is the complete picture of how evaluations work under Colorado's ECEA.

Who Can Request an Evaluation

Both parents and school staff can initiate a referral for a special education evaluation. As a parent, you can request an evaluation for your child at any time, in writing, regardless of the child's current academic performance.

You do not need to:

• Wait for the school to suggest it
• Complete a waiting period or intervention program first
• Obtain a physician's diagnosis first
• Demonstrate that your child is failing

Any of those requirements, if imposed before responding to your written evaluation request, is a potential ECEA violation.

How to Request an Evaluation Formally

Submit your request in writing — email is sufficient and creates a timestamp. Address it to the special education case manager or Special Education Director at the school, and CC the principal. Your request should include:

• Your child's name, date of birth, and school
• A statement that you are requesting a special education evaluation
• A brief description of the concerns driving the request (academic, behavioral, social-emotional, communication, motor, or any combination)
• The date you are submitting the request

You do not need to specify the disability category or type of evaluation. That determination is made by the multidisciplinary evaluation team. Your job is to identify the areas of concern; the school's job is to design an evaluation that adequately assesses them.

The Colorado 60-Day and 90-Day Timelines

Once you submit a written evaluation request, Colorado ECEA rules set two hard deadlines:

60-calendar-day rule. From the date the AU receives your written parental consent to evaluate (not the date of your request, but your consent), the district has 60 calendar days to complete the evaluation and hold an eligibility determination meeting.

This is a calendar day standard — not school days. Summer breaks, winter break, and spring break do not pause the clock. If you sign consent in May, the evaluation must be completed by July. Districts that claim summer vacation extends their timeline are wrong. The CDE and disability rights organizations in Colorado have been clear on this point.

90-calendar-day rule. If your child is found eligible, the initial IEP must be developed within 90 calendar days of the original consent date.

These timelines matter because delays are common and are among the most frequently cited violations in Colorado state complaints. Track your consent date and the deadlines yourself. Don't rely on the district to manage its own accountability.

What the ECEA Requires of the Evaluation

A special education evaluation in Colorado must be:

Comprehensive. The evaluation must assess all areas of suspected disability — not just the narrowest interpretation of your concern. If you've raised concerns about reading, attention, writing, and social interaction, the evaluation should address all four areas. An evaluation that tests reading only and calls it complete is not adequate.

Multidisciplinary. The evaluation must be conducted by a team, not a single evaluator. Typically this includes a school psychologist, a special education teacher, and relevant specialists (speech-language pathologist, occupational therapist, etc.) depending on the areas of concern.

Non-discriminatory. Evaluations must be administered in the student's primary language and must not be discriminatory on the basis of race, culture, or disability. Testing instruments must be technically sound and administered by trained personnel.

Comprehensive Body of Evidence. CDE's standards require that eligibility determinations be based on a Body of Evidence (BOE) — multiple data points across multiple sources and settings. The BOE must include academic benchmark assessments, curriculum-based measures, behavioral data, attendance records, and parent input. A single test score is not a compliant BOE.

Parent input required. The ECEA requires that parent input be included in the evaluation process. You should receive a parent input form or questionnaire. Complete it thoroughly — your observations and history with your child are data that the school cannot replicate.

What the Evaluation Must Not Do: Denying Evaluation Based on MTSS

Colorado schools use a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework — providing increasingly intensive interventions (Tier 2, Tier 3) before referring to special education. This framework is legitimate as a general practice. It becomes illegal when used to delay or deny your formal evaluation request.

The law is clear: once a parent submits a written evaluation request, the MTSS framework cannot be invoked to postpone the evaluation. The district cannot say "your child needs to complete another 6-week intervention before we will evaluate." Your written request triggers the 60-day clock. If the district refuses to evaluate and proposes continued MTSS instead, they must provide a Prior Written Notice explaining the refusal — and you can challenge it.

The Eligibility Determination Meeting

After the evaluation is complete, the multidisciplinary team — which must include you — meets to determine whether your child qualifies for special education services. The team must find:

1. The child has a disability in one of the 14 ECEA categories
2. The disability adversely affects educational performance
3. The child requires specially designed instruction because of the disability

All three must be present for IEP eligibility. If #3 is absent — the child has a disability that impacts education but can be addressed through accommodations alone — the team should immediately consider a 504 plan.

If the team finds your child ineligible for an IEP, they must provide a PWN explaining the decision, the data relied upon, and alternatives considered. If you disagree with the eligibility decision, you have the right to request an IEE at public expense.

If the District Refuses to Evaluate

If the district refuses your evaluation request — claiming the child doesn't show signs of disability, is performing adequately, or needs more time in MTSS — they must provide a Prior Written Notice stating:

• That they are refusing to evaluate
• Their reasons
• The data or evidence supporting the refusal
• Your rights in response

If the PWN is absent, or if you believe the refusal is unwarranted, you can:

• File a state complaint with the CDE ESSU for refusal to evaluate
• Request mediation
• Request due process

In Colorado, refusal to evaluate a child with documented concerns about a suspected disability is among the more serious procedural violations — particularly if the district has been informally acknowledging the child's struggles through classroom modifications or intervention tiers without formalizing an evaluation.

Evaluations for Children Transferring Into Colorado

If your child has an existing IEP from another state and transfers into a Colorado district, the receiving AU must provide comparable services while it reviews the existing IEP and determines whether to adopt it or conduct its own evaluation. Colorado AUs have the right to conduct new evaluations when students transfer, but they cannot simply discontinue services during the review process.

For students transferring from outside the ECEA framework — for example, from a state with different disability categories — the AU may need to conduct an initial Colorado evaluation to establish eligibility under ECEA categories. The 60-day timeline applies to this initial evaluation.

Private Evaluations and the Evaluation Process

If you have had a private evaluation conducted — by a neuropsychologist, speech-language pathologist, or other specialist — provide it to the school before or at the evaluation stage. The district must consider private evaluation data in its comprehensive assessment. Private evaluation data does not replace the district's evaluation, but it is part of the Body of Evidence the team is required to review.

If the district's evaluation reaches different conclusions than the private evaluation, and you believe the district's evaluation is inadequate, request an IEE at public expense. The two evaluations and their discrepancies become the subject of the eligibility discussion.

The Colorado IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a step-by-step evaluation request template, the ECEA citations needed to hold the district to the 60-day timeline, and guidance on what to do when the evaluation is complete but the eligibility decision doesn't match what you're seeing at home.

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