Michigan Special Education Timeline Chart: Every Deadline Parents Need to Know

Michigan special education timelines are not optional suggestions. They are binding legal deadlines built into the Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education (MARSE) — and in several critical areas, Michigan's rules are stricter than the federal IDEA baseline. Schools that miss them are in violation, and parents who know them have a concrete enforcement tool.

Most families have no idea these timelines exist until they are already months past the point where the district should have acted. This post lays out the critical deadlines so you can track them from day one.

Initial Evaluation and IEP Timeline

The clock starts at written consent, not verbal agreement.

Michigan is explicit on this: the 30-school-day evaluation timeline begins the exact day the parent provides written consent for the initial evaluation. Verbal agreement at a school meeting does not start the clock. The signed consent form does. If you verbally agreed in October but did not sign the consent form until November, the 30-day window opens in November.

Once written consent is received, the district has 30 school days to:

1. Complete the comprehensive evaluation (Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team report)
2. Convene the IEPC (IEP team) meeting
3. Provide a written offer of FAPE (the IEP)

This entire sequence — evaluation, team meeting, and IEP offer — must happen within 30 school days. Federal law gives districts 60 calendar days; Michigan cuts that nearly in half. If your district is telling you the evaluation takes 60 days, they are citing federal law and ignoring the stricter Michigan standard.

After you consent to services: Once you provide written consent for the initial IEP, services must begin within 15 school days. This is also Michigan-specific. A district that takes 30 or 45 days to start services after receiving your signed consent is in violation of MARSE.

Transition from Early On (Part C to Part B)

Children in Michigan's Early On system (birth to age 3) transition to school-based services at age 3. The timeline for this transition is tightly sequenced:

• Between 2 years 3 months and 2 years 9 months: Transition planning must begin, including a transition conference with the local school district
• Before the child reaches 2 years 9 months: The local school district must be notified and a transition conference must be convened
• After written parental consent: 30 school days to complete the school district evaluation and develop an initial IEP
• By the child's third birthday: The IEP must be fully implemented — services must be running, not just planned

This is a hard deadline. If your child turns 3 on September 15 and the IEP is not yet implemented, the district missed their obligation. Many families in Michigan lose weeks or months of services during this transition because no one told them the district had a firm implementation deadline tied to the birthday.

Annual IEP Review Timeline

The IEP must be reviewed — and updated as needed — at least once per year. The annual review meeting must occur within 12 months of the previous IEP meeting.

Districts cannot let the IEP expire. If the annual IEP meeting has not been scheduled and the current IEP date is approaching, send a written request for the meeting. An IEP that has technically expired while the district stalls on scheduling is a compliance problem.

The annual review is not just a paperwork formality. Every annual review is an opportunity to update goals, adjust services based on the year's progress data, and revisit placement. Treat it that way.

Three-Year Reevaluation

Every three years, the district must reevaluate the student to ensure continuing eligibility and to inform the ongoing IEP. This is called a triennial evaluation or triennial REED (Review of Existing Evaluative Data).

The reevaluation must occur within three years of the previous evaluation unless both the parent and the district agree it is not necessary. If you believe your child needs updated assessments — new cognitive testing, updated speech-language evaluation, comprehensive psychological assessment — you can request them within the triennial process rather than waiting.

The district needs your consent for the reevaluation. If they propose only a REED (reviewing existing records without new testing) and you believe new assessments are warranted, you can decline the REED-only approach and request comprehensive testing. If they refuse to conduct new testing and you disagree, you can request an IEE at public expense after the triennial is complete.

IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation) Timeline

If you disagree with the district's evaluation and request an IEE at public expense, the district must respond within seven calendar days by either:

• Providing the IEE at public expense (initiating the process to fund the independent evaluator you choose), or
• Filing for due process to defend the adequacy of their own evaluation

Seven calendar days is a short window. If you send a written IEE request on a Monday, the district's response is due the following Monday. If they simply do not respond, that itself is a violation — file a state complaint.

This timeline is stricter than what many national special education resources describe. Michigan's seven-day response requirement creates real urgency on the district's side and real leverage for families.

Dispute Resolution Timelines

MDE State Complaint: You must file within one year of the alleged IDEA or MARSE violation. The MDE has 60 days from the date of the complaint to complete its investigation and issue a final written decision. The MDE may grant a brief extension in exceptional circumstances, but 60 days is the standard.

Due Process Hearing: The statute of limitations for a due process complaint in Michigan is two years from the date you knew or should have known about the violation (with limited exceptions). Once a due process complaint is filed, the district has 15 days to convene a Resolution Session. If the dispute is not resolved in the Resolution Session, the hearing proceeds before an Administrative Law Judge.

Stay-Put During Dispute: When you file for due process, the child's educational placement is frozen (stays put) in the last agreed-upon placement while the hearing is pending. This prevents districts from making placement changes over your objection during the pendency of a dispute.

Mediation through SEMS: There is no fixed timeline for mediation — it proceeds when both parties agree to participate. However, if you are considering mediation, do not allow the state complaint or due process statute of limitations to expire while you wait. You can pursue mediation alongside a state complaint; they are not mutually exclusive.

Discipline Timelines

Manifestation Determination Review (MDR): Must occur within 10 school days of any decision to change placement due to a disciplinary infraction. This is a binding legal deadline — not a guideline. Even short-term suspensions that cumulatively total more than 10 days and constitute a pattern trigger the same requirement.

If the MDR finds the behavior is a manifestation of the disability, the student must be returned to their prior placement immediately and the district must conduct an FBA and revise the BIP.

A Quick Reference Summary

Knowing these dates matters because districts do not volunteer the information when they are running late. If you know the timeline, you can identify a violation the moment it occurs — not months later when you are told the school is "working on it."

The Michigan IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook includes a printable timeline tracker designed for Michigan's MARSE-specific deadlines, with prompts for calculating your specific dates based on your child's situation and evaluation history.

When a district misses a deadline, you do not need to wait and hope they catch up. You document it and decide whether to escalate. The timeline is the floor — not a target they get credit for eventually reaching.

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