Missouri IEP requirements: the 30/60/30 clock, Notice of Action, and Forms A–G

Missouri’s special education rules live in the Missouri State Plan for Special Education, but the working documents most teachers actually touch come from DESE’s Office of Special Education compliance page — model forms, flow charts, and (unusually) the actual rubrics reviewers use to score IEP goals. Three things define the Show-Me State’s system: a 30/60/30 evaluation clock counted in calendar days, prior written notice under its Missouri name — the Notice of Action — and a lettered set of model IEP forms (A–G) that tell you exactly what a compliant document looks like. Every deadline below is cited to DESE’s own published documents, primarily its initial-evaluation process flow chart and the IEP compliance page.

Every Missouri deadline in one table

Source: Missouri DESE, Initial Evaluation Process — Parent Referral flow chart (Special Education Compliance) and Form C: Post-Secondary Transition Plan (revised September 2023).

The 30/60/30 clock — and why the middle number includes the meeting

Missouri’s evaluation process runs on three linked calendar-day clocks. First: within 30 calendar days of a parent referral, the team must conduct a Review of Existing Data (RED) — that review, not the referral, formally starts the evaluation process. If the district instead concludes there’s no reason to suspect a disability, it owes the parent a Notice of Action – Refused within the same 30 days; silence is not an option. Second: once written consent is in hand, the district has 60 calendar days to hold the eligibility determination meeting. Read that carefully — DESE’s flow chart puts the meeting itself inside the 60 days, so an evaluation report finished on day 58 with a meeting scheduled for day 70 blows the timeline. Third: for an eligible student, the IEP must be developed within 30 calendar days of the eligibility determination, with a Notice of Action for initial services and the evaluation report going to the parent. Because everything counts in calendar days, summer and breaks burn the clock — a consent signed in late April forces an eligibility meeting by late June, which is why Missouri case managers chase spring referrals so hard. The referral step itself follows the same federal playbook we cover in our special education referral process guide.

Notice of Action: Missouri’s name for prior written notice

Teachers arriving from other states search their Missouri paperwork for “prior written notice” and don’t find it — because Missouri calls it a Notice of Action. DESE’s process documents issue one at every decision point: a Notice of Action for initial evaluation before testing, a Notice of Action – Refused when the district declines a referral, and a Notice of Action for initial services or for ineligibility after the eligibility meeting. The content burden is the same as prior written notice everywhere: what the district proposes or refuses, why, what data supported the decision, and what options were considered. If your district’s form is labeled “NOA,” treat every blank on it as load-bearing — it’s the document a state file review pulls first.

Forms A–G: Missouri shows you what compliant looks like

DESE publishes model IEP attachment forms, lettered by situation: Form A for students who are blind or visually impaired, Form B for extended school year (with its own ESY checklist), Form C for the post-secondary transition plan, Form D for state assessments including MAP-A (Missouri’s alternate assessment), Form E for district-wide assessments, Form F for accommodations and modifications, and Form G for distance learning plans. Even if your IEP software renders them differently, the model forms define the fields a reviewer expects filled. The same page hosts the quiet gift of Missouri compliance: the S.M.A.R.T. Goals rubric and Annual IEP Goal Compliance Rubric — the literal scoring keys. Write every goal with a baseline, condition, measurable target, and timeframe (our measurable goals guide walks the formula) and the rubric takes care of itself.

Form C: transition at 16, with required goal areas

Missouri’s Post-Secondary Transition Plan (Form C, revised September 2023) must be in place beginning not later than the first IEP to be in effect when the student turns 16, updated annually, and built on age-appropriate transition assessments. The form makes two goal areas explicitly required — Employment and Education/Training — with Independent Living added when appropriate, and each goal written in the student’s voice (“After high school, I will…”). Every goal gets transition services with a named responsible party — school, student, parent, or an outside agency, which (with consent) must be invited to the IEP meeting; the form pointedly notes that Pre-ETS is not an outside agency. The course-of-study grid maps up to five years of coursework against the goal areas, and DESE encourages aligning it with the student’s Individual Career and Academic Plan. Missouri also lists two graduation routes on the form: a regular diploma earned on credits, or one earned on meeting IEP goals and objectives. For writing the goals themselves, start with our transition goals guide.

How Missouri compares

Missouri’s 60-calendar-day window with the eligibility meeting inside it is the same shape as Indiana’s 50-instructional-day clock next door — both states force the meeting onto the evaluation timeline — but Missouri counts calendar days, so breaks and summers burn it. On transition, Missouri stays at the federal floor of 16, two years behind the age-14 club of Tennessee and Indiana. And its published goal rubrics make it one of the few states where “will this goal survive a compliance review?” has a checkable answer — Missouri’s state file reviews upload against a published checklist, a process we break down in our special education file review guide.

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