R.C. is a student in the District of Columbia.  In April, 2010, the school district completed an evaluation of R.C. to consider his eligibility for special education services.  Ten months later, on February 8, 2011, his IEP Team met and determined that he was eligible for services.  The court case does not tell us why there was such a long delay, but the dates are relevant because the parent later complained that the student’s three-year reevaluation was not completed on time.

We all know that it is a “three-year” reevaluation, but when does the three year clock start to tick? Is it from the date of the prior evaluation (April, 2010) or the date of eligibility (February, 2011)?

The court concluded that the timeline runs from the date of the previous evaluation.  Thus, if a student’s FIE (Full Individual Evaluation) is completed today, the three-year re-eval would need to be completed by April 20, 2018.

In R.C.’s case, the district missed the deadline.  The court held that this was a procedural error, but found no evidence that the error caused any harm to the parent or the student.   In fact, the court pointed out that “plaintiff has not alleged, much less proven, that R.C. suffered any educational harm from this violation.”

No harm, no foul. The case is Cooper v. District of Columbia, decided by the federal district court for the District of Columbia on December 30, 2014.  We found it at 64 IDELR 271.

DAWG BONE: THREE-YEAR RE-EVAL RUNS FROM DATE OF PREVIOUS EVALUATION.