Louisiana IEP requirements: the 60-business-day clock and the April Dunn Act
Louisiana’s special education regulation is Bulletin 1706, “Regulations for Implementation of the Children with Exceptionalities Act” (LAC 28:XLIII) — and that title already teaches you the state’s vocabulary. Louisiana says exceptionalities where other states say disabilities, routes referrals through a committee called the SBLC, and runs its evaluation clock in business days, a day type no neighboring state in our matrix uses. Below: every deadline that governs a Louisiana IEP, the SPED referral pipeline, and the graduation pathway — the April Dunn Act — that Louisiana teachers get asked about most.
Every Louisiana deadline in one table
| What has to happen | Deadline | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Complete the initial evaluation after parental consent | 60 business days | LDOE procedural safeguards (Louisiana's state-set timeframe under 34 CFR § 300.301(c)(1)(ii)) |
| Hold the IEP meeting and have the IEP in effect after eligibility | 30 days | 34 CFR § 300.323(c)(1) — no state substitute in LDOE guidance |
| Transition services on the IEP | First IEP in effect when the student turns 16 | 34 CFR § 300.320(b) — federal floor governs |
| Review the IEP | At least annually | 34 CFR § 300.324(b)(1) |
| Reevaluation | At least every 3 years; not more than once a year unless agreed | 34 CFR § 300.303(b) |
| Services obligation attaches in discipline removals | 10 cumulative school days in the school year | LDOE procedural safeguards; 34 CFR § 300.530(d) |
| Interim alternative setting for weapons/drugs/serious bodily injury | Up to 45 school days | LDOE procedural safeguards; 34 CFR § 300.530(g) |
| Expedited discipline due process hearing occurs | Within 20 school days of the request | LDOE procedural safeguards; 34 CFR § 300.532(c)(2) |
| Due process evidence disclosure before a hearing | 5 business days | LDOE procedural safeguards; 34 CFR § 300.512(a)(3) |
Sources: the Louisiana Department of Education’s Educational Rights of Children with Disabilities (the state procedural safeguards notice) and 34 CFR Part 300. Districts may set tighter internal deadlines; check yours before working to the outside edge of a window.
60 business days: the day-type trap in the evaluation clock
The safeguards notice states the rule plainly: if you consent, the evaluation must take place within 60 business days. Federal regulation sets 60 calendar days as the default but lets a state establish its own timeframe (34 CFR § 300.301(c)(1)(i)–(ii)) — and Louisiana’s choice runs longer than the federal default, not shorter. Sixty business days is about twelve calendar weeks before holidays are counted.
The day type is where teachers transferring between states get burned, in both directions — promising a parent an eligibility date Louisiana’s clock does not require, or assuming a Texas-style pause that does not exist. The same clock in the four states Louisiana teachers most often compare against:
| State | Initial evaluation clock | What the day type means |
|---|---|---|
| Louisiana | 60 business days from consent | Weekends excluded by definition; roughly 12 calendar weeks |
| Texas | 45 school days from consent | Instructional days only — summers and breaks pause the clock |
| Illinois | 60 school days from consent | School days, with a next-school-year rule near summer |
| South Carolina | 60 calendar days from consent | Federal default adopted — every day counts, including breaks |
Whatever the day type, the clock starts at consent received, not at referral — so the weeks a request spends in committee before consent paperwork goes home are additional, which is why the SBLC stage below deserves your attention.
SBLC and RTI: how a Louisiana referral actually moves
Louisiana’s safeguards notice defines the School Building Level Committee (SBLC) as a group that meets regularly to discuss concerns from teachers, parents, or other professionals on individual students experiencing difficulty in school because of academic and/or behavior problems, and directs it to review and analyze data — including RTI results — to determine the most beneficial options for the student. In practice the SBLC is the front door: a classroom concern becomes an intervention plan, the intervention data either resolves the concern or documents that it persists, and a referral for evaluation goes forward with a data file already attached.
- For a gen-ed teacher: bring work samples and specific, dated observations to the SBLC, not adjectives. “Reads 41 words per minute on grade-level passages in October” moves a committee; “struggles in reading” does not. Our baseline data guide shows the numbers worth collecting.
- For a case manager: the SBLC’s RTI record becomes evaluation evidence. Gaps in it — interventions described but not measured, tiers skipped — surface later as eligibility questions.
- For everyone: the SBLC process cannot be used to stall. A parent’s direct request for an evaluation still demands a formal district response — consent paperwork or prior written notice of refusal under 34 CFR § 300.503 — and the district’s child find duty (34 CFR § 300.111) runs regardless of committee calendars.
The April Dunn Act: Louisiana’s alternate road to a diploma
In 2014 the Louisiana Legislature passed Act 833; the pathway it created is now known as the April Dunn Act, and LDOE’s guidance, The April Dunn Act: An Alternate Means to Graduation for Students with Disabilities (June 2023), is the operational document. The mechanism: an eligible student earns course credit by meeting Individualized Performance Criteria (IPC) that the IEP team writes for specific courses, instead of clearing the standard assessment benchmarks — and graduates with a diploma, not a certificate.
The IEP team determines eligibility when a student:
- enters high school without achieving the state-established benchmarks on the LEAP 2025 state assessment for two of the three most recent school years, or
- does not achieve the benchmarks after two attempts of the same LEAP 2025 high school assessment.
Three working notes. First, the middle-school record decides the first prong — so the April Dunn conversation belongs in the 8th-grade IEP review, not junior year. Second, IPC are written per course and the file must document achievement against them; treat them with the same measurability discipline as annual goals — criteria a monitor can verify, not “teacher judgment.” Third, this is not LEAP Connect, the alternate assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities: LDOE’s guidance draws the line between the two pathways explicitly, and the same guidance cautions teams of students on the TOPS University diploma pathway to write IPC that keep four-year-college doors open. Name the pathway in the minutes and be able to defend the choice.
Discipline: the school-day windows, and the 2025 restraint update
Louisiana’s discipline framework tracks the federal one, in school days: up to 10 consecutive school days of removal handled like any other student; services obligations once removals reach 10 cumulative school days in the year; up to 45 school days in an interim alternative educational setting for weapons, drugs, or serious bodily injury regardless of manifestation, or by hearing-officer order where the current placement is substantially likely to result in injury; and an expedited hearing within 20 school days when discipline is challenged. The manifestation determination that sits under all of this is a federal procedure (34 CFR § 300.530(e)) — our manifestation determination guide walks the meeting itself.
One current item worth flagging to your building: Act 479 of 2025 directed increased oversight and safety in seclusion and restraint, and BESE ran the amendments through Bulletin 1706 (LAC 28:XLIII.301 and 540–549) and Bulletin 741. If your crisis-intervention documentation predates the 2025–26 school year, request the current forms — the sections behind them changed.
What Louisiana leaves to federal law
Where the state documents are silent, the federal floor is the Louisiana answer, and two of those floors surprise people. Transition services follow the federal trigger — the first IEP in effect at 16 (34 CFR § 300.320(b)) — which makes Louisiana later than South Carolina (13), Texas (14), or New York (15); if an April Dunn decision is coming, do the pathway thinking earlier even though the transition page can wait. And the IEP meeting after an eligibility determination stays on the federal 30-day clock (34 CFR § 300.323(c)(1)) — a short window after a long evaluation, so calendar the meeting the day eligibility is signed. Annual review (34 CFR § 300.324(b)) and three-year reevaluation (34 CFR § 300.303) run as everywhere. For the full federal checklist under any state’s additions, start from our IEP compliance checklist.
A Louisiana-specific pre-meeting check
- Is this an evaluation case? Confirm the consent date and compute 60 business days forward — then subtract your district’s internal buffer.
- Is the SBLC file complete? Dated interventions with measured results, not narrative summaries.
- 8th grade or high school with weak LEAP 2025 history? Run the April Dunn eligibility prongs and record the team’s pathway decision — April Dunn IPC, LEAP Connect, or standard.
- Turning 16 during this IEP? Transition assessment on file, postsecondary goals in postsecondary language.
- Any removals this year? Total the cumulative school days now, not after the next incident.
- Restraint or seclusion in the record? Verify the documentation is on the current post-Act-479 forms.
Frequently asked questions
How long does Louisiana have to complete an initial special education evaluation?
60 business days from the date the district receives parental consent. Louisiana's procedural safeguards notice states it directly: once you consent, the evaluation must take place within 60 business days. That day type matters. Federal regulation defaults to 60 calendar days unless the state sets its own timeframe (34 CFR § 300.301(c)(1)), and Louisiana did — in the opposite direction from what most transfers expect. Sixty business days is roughly twelve calendar weeks with no school-holiday pause built into the label, so an October consent can legitimately run to a spring eligibility decision. If you moved from Texas (45 school days) or a 60-calendar-day state like South Carolina, recalibrate what 'on time' means before you promise a parent a date.
What is Bulletin 1706?
Louisiana's special education regulation. Bulletin 1706, 'Regulations for Implementation of the Children with Exceptionalities Act,' is codified at LAC 28:XLIII — Title 28 (Education), Part XLIII of the Louisiana Administrative Code. When a Louisiana administrator says 'that's a 1706 issue,' they mean the state regulation implementing IDEA. Note the word 'exceptionalities': Louisiana's umbrella statute is the Children with Exceptionalities Act, and 'students with exceptionalities' is the term you will see across state documents where other states write 'students with disabilities.'
What is the SBLC in Louisiana?
The School Building Level Committee — the campus team a referral runs through. Louisiana's procedural safeguards notice defines it as a group that meets regularly to discuss concerns from teachers, parents, or other professionals on individual students experiencing difficulty in school because of academic and/or behavior problems, and it shall review and analyze data, including RTI results, to determine the most beneficial options for the student. Practically: if you suspect a disability, the SBLC is usually where the paper trail starts, and its data review (including RTI) is what a later evaluation builds on. A parent can still request an evaluation directly — the SBLC process does not erase the district's child find obligations under 34 CFR § 300.111.
What is the April Dunn Act, and who is eligible?
Louisiana's alternate path to a standard high school diploma for students with IEPs, created by Act 833 of 2014. The IEP team determines eligibility when a student either (1) enters high school without achieving the state-established benchmarks on the LEAP 2025 assessment for two of the three most recent school years, or (2) does not achieve the benchmarks after two attempts of the same LEAP 2025 high school assessment. An eligible student earns course credit by meeting Individualized Performance Criteria (IPC) the IEP team sets for specific courses, instead of the standard assessment cut scores. It is a different mechanism from LEAP Connect, the alternate assessment pathway for students with significant cognitive disabilities — a student is on one road or the other, and the IEP team should be able to say which and why.
Does Louisiana change the transition-planning age?
No state-added trigger appears in Louisiana's teacher-facing guidance — the federal floor governs: transition services beginning not later than the first IEP to be in effect when the student turns 16, updated annually (34 CFR § 300.320(b)). That makes Louisiana later than several states in our matrix — South Carolina starts at 13, Texas at 14, New York at 15. One caution: for a student who may be an April Dunn Act candidate, the eligibility test looks at LEAP 2025 results from middle school ('two of the three most recent school years' before entering high school), so the pathway conversation effectively starts in 8th grade even though the formal transition page is not federally required until 16.
How do Louisiana's discipline timelines work?
The federal architecture applies, and Louisiana's safeguards notice repeats it in state terms: removals of up to 10 consecutive school days can be applied as they would be for nondisabled students; once removals reach 10 cumulative school days in a school year, services obligations attach; and a removal to an interim alternative educational setting for weapons, drugs, or serious bodily injury can run up to 45 school days regardless of whether the behavior was a manifestation of the disability. A hearing officer can also order up to 45 school days in an interim setting if maintaining the current placement is substantially likely to result in injury. An expedited due process hearing on discipline must occur within 20 school days of the request. The manifestation determination itself follows 34 CFR § 300.530(e) — see our manifestation determination guide for how to run that meeting.
What changed in Louisiana's seclusion and restraint rules?
Act 479 of the 2025 Regular Legislative Session required BESE to revise its policy on seclusion and restraint to provide for increased oversight and safety, and BESE moved the changes through Bulletin 1706 (LAC 28:XLIII sections 301 and 540–549) and Bulletin 741. If your district's crisis-intervention or restraint-documentation forms predate the 2025–26 school year, ask for the current versions — the regulation sections behind them were amended.
Related guides
- Texas IEP requirements — the neighboring system, with a school-day evaluation clock and ARD-committee vocabulary.
- South Carolina IEP requirements — the calendar-day contrast, and transition planning three years earlier than Louisiana’s.
- Manifestation determination — the meeting Louisiana’s discipline windows funnel into.
This guide summarizes Louisiana regulation and LDOE guidance for educators and is not legal advice. Bulletin 1706 is amended periodically — Act 479 of 2025 is a live example — so confirm any deadline against the Louisiana Department of Education and your district’s procedures before relying on it.