Wisconsin Child Find: What Schools Must Do to Identify Students with Disabilities

Your child has been struggling for two years. Teachers keep telling you it's a behavior issue, a maturity issue, a home environment issue — anything but a disability that the school has to address. Meanwhile, your child is falling further behind and you're being told to "give it time." What you're probably dealing with is a Child Find failure, and it's a violation of federal and Wisconsin law.

What Child Find Requires

The Child Find mandate is embedded in IDEA and implemented in Wisconsin through PI 11 and Wisconsin Statutes Chapter 115. It requires every school district to actively locate, identify, and evaluate all children with disabilities who reside within district boundaries — including:

• Students enrolled in public school
• Students attending private or religious schools within the district
• Children who are homeschooled
• Children who are homeless or highly mobile
• Children who have not been referred by a teacher or parent

Child Find is not a passive system. Districts cannot simply wait for parents to ask for evaluations. They must have active procedures in place to identify children who may need special education services, even when those children appear to be managing — or when they're managing just well enough that no one has raised a formal concern.

Who Can Make a Referral

Any individual who reasonably believes a child may have a disability may submit a written referral to the local educational agency (LEA). That includes:

• Parents or legal guardians
• Teachers and school staff
• Physicians and healthcare providers
• Community members

You do not need a formal diagnosis before making a referral. You do not need the school's permission. You do not need to have already tried interventions. A written referral based on observed academic, functional, or behavioral struggles is sufficient to trigger the district's legal obligations.

The referral should be directed to the district's special education director or school principal. Once it's received, the clock starts.

What Happens After a Referral

Within 15 business days of receiving a special education referral, the district must send you either:

1. A request for consent to conduct additional evaluation testing, or
2. A formal notice that no additional testing is necessary

If the district decides no additional testing is needed, they must still convene an IEP team to review existing data (using DPI Form ED-1) and explain their reasoning in writing. You are entitled to be part of that review team.

If the district does request consent for testing, and you provide written consent, the district then has 60 days to complete a comprehensive evaluation and hold an IEP team meeting to determine eligibility. The 60-day timeline is a hard deadline under PI 11. Districts cannot extend it because of staffing shortages, holiday breaks, or administrative backlog — though these are common excuses.

The "Wait and See" Problem

The most common Child Find violation parents encounter is the "wait and see" or Response to Intervention (RtI) delay. A district may tell you your child needs to complete Tier 2 or Tier 3 interventions before they can be evaluated for special education. This is not accurate under the law.

While RtI data is a legitimate part of the evaluation process for specific learning disabilities under PI 11.36(6), districts cannot use the RtI process as a prerequisite that must be completed before evaluating a child. IDEA explicitly states that a parent's request for an initial evaluation cannot be denied simply because the child hasn't completed intervention tiers. If a district refuses to evaluate your child in lieu of interventions, put that refusal in writing — or better, send them a formal letter demanding they either begin the evaluation process or issue a Prior Written Notice (Form M-1) with a legally specific reason for the refusal.

What a Child Find Violation Looks Like

Common Child Find failures include:

• Refusing to evaluate because the child is "passing" or has decent grades despite significant struggles
• Insisting on months of RtI interventions before accepting a referral
• Failing to respond to a written referral within 15 business days
• Not completing the evaluation within 60 days of consent
• Failing to include the parent in the existing data review

DPI state complaint decisions regularly cite violations of Child Find timelines. OSEP monitoring of Wisconsin's State Performance Plan has identified persistent noncompliance with the 60-day evaluation timeline across multiple districts, and the DPI has issued corrective action orders requiring districts to hold IEP meetings to consider compensatory services when timelines were missed.

How to Protect Your Child's Rights

Your most important tool is a written referral. A phone call or verbal conversation does not start any legal timeline. A written letter that specifically states you are requesting an evaluation for special education eligibility under IDEA and Wisconsin Statutes § 115.777 — submitted by email or certified mail so you have a timestamp — starts the 15-business-day clock.

If the district fails to respond within 15 business days, or refuses to evaluate without issuing a proper Prior Written Notice, you can file a state complaint with the DPI using Form PI-2117. The DPI investigates complaints and issues written decisions within 60 days. Documented timelines of district inaction are exactly the kind of evidence that leads to DPI findings of noncompliance.

The Wisconsin IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook includes an evaluation request letter template pre-drafted with the correct statutory citations, a checklist for tracking your 15- and 60-day timelines, and a guide to what to do when the district refuses to evaluate. Don't rely on a phone conversation to get this process started — write it down.

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