Mississippi counts from the day you asked, and a team meets inside 14 days
Telling a teacher, a principal or the school secretary is a request in Mississippi, and day one is the day you said it. Within 14 calendar days Mississippi’s Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team (the MET) meets on that request, and a notice follows 7 calendar days later with consent or a refusal. Start with the dates in your file: the day the school received your written request, the day you signed consent, and the date on the district’s latest notice.
How a child gets an IEP in Mississippi
Say it, then write it
Tell your principal, copy whoever your district lists for special education, then email the same words so the date holds.
Which day the MET meets
Mississippi puts the decision with that team, so ask the school which day it has the meeting booked.
Sign, and the 60 begin
Your signed consent is what opens the 60 calendar days; nothing may be tested before it arrives.
Date the last report
The evaluation ends on the date the last report was signed, not the day a copy reaches you.
The evaluation request letter writes step one for you, in the words a district answers.
Office of Special Education — One office in Jackson takes a Mississippi complaint, runs mediation, and lists the special education director in every district.
What qualifies a child in Mississippi
The MET rules at the meeting itself, which is why Mississippi bars the evaluation report from naming a category in advance.
- Mississippi’s eligibility guidelines name the qualified professionals each disability category calls for.
- The state writes serious emotional disturbance and emotional disability as one category, so either word fits.
- Miss. Code Ann. 37-23-1 covers exceptional children ages three through twenty.
What the rule says
The state wrote it this way:
“Day one would be the day the parent makes the verbal or written request to the LEA (teacher, principal, secretary, special education director, etc.). The MET must make a decision within fourteen (14) calendar days of the parent’s request.”
Miss. State Board Policy 74.19, §300.301(b)(1)(i)
A hallway conversation is on the clock here, so note the name and the date before you leave.
The deadlines Mississippi sets
School days and calendar days count differently, so read the unit in every row.
| What is being counted | By when | How it is counted |
|---|---|---|
| The MET meets on your request | 14 calendar days | Day one is the day you asked, whether you wrote it down or said it out loud.State Policies §300.301(b)(1)(i) |
| Consent form or a refusal | 7 calendar days | The MET meeting date starts these, so ask which day the team met.State Policies §300.301(b)(1)(i)(a) |
| The comprehensive evaluation | 60 calendar days | It opens the day the district has your signed form, and closes on the last report’s date.State Policies §300.301(c)(1) |
| Evaluation reports reach you | 7 calendar days ahead | Owed ahead of the eligibility ruling, and only your written waiver shortens the wait.State Policies §300.306(a)(2) |
| The eligibility determination meeting | 14 calendar days | It runs from the date the last report was signed, which is rarely the date you heard.State Policies §300.306(a) |
| The IEP Committee writes it | 30 days | The eligibility ruling starts them, and Mississippi’s manual counts them as calendar days.State Policies §300.323(c)(1) |
What Mississippi adds to the federal floor
IDEA is the floor, not the ceiling. What a state adds on top is what you can ask for by name.
- Delay counted from birth
- IDEA opens the developmental delay category at age three. Mississippi runs it from birth, and a fresh ruling is due before ten.
- Regression and recoupment
- IDEA leaves extended school year to the team. Mississippi’s Rule 74.12 defines regression, recoupment and mastery, so a summer skill loss has a state definition.
- State money after the IEP
- Mississippi’s Education Scholarship Account, Rule 74.21, moves state money to a private school or a therapist once a district has written an IEP.
If the school says no
Refusal here comes from the MET, which may route your child to the Teacher Support Team for more intervention.
- Write to request the MET’s meeting date and the notice; silence here is a missed date.
- The refusal notice has to carry a justification, so ask which existing data the MET reviewed.
- Send the Office of Special Education a signed complaint naming the dates, and the state answers you in writing.
A refusal arrives in writing under 34 CFR 300.503, naming what was refused and the data behind it.
This page organizes the state’s own words: it does not replace the current rule text, or advice from someone qualified in your state.
Have the pages in your child’s file read back to you, free.
The review reads every page you upload and returns each finding in plain English, with one question for the team and the page it came from.
Review my IEP — freeFree, no card. It reads your pages and contacts no one.
Where this comes from
- Mississippi’s State Policies under IDEA, Rule 74.19Every deadline on this page.
- Volume I: Child Find, Evaluation and EligibilityHow the state runs it.
- First Steps, Mississippi’s early intervention programWhere a child under three starts.
- The federal evaluation rule (34 CFR 300.301)The floor every state builds on.