Illinois

The published process

Placement during a dispute

"During a pending due process hearing or any judicial proceeding, your child must remain in his/her present educational placement with the eligibility status and special education and related services that were provided at the time of the filing of the hearing request." A distinct mechanism applies at the mediation stage: a parent’s request for mediation "challenging a district proposal to change the child’s educational placement shall invoke the “stay-put” provision", and where mediation is declined or fails, the parent "shall have 10 days from the date of the refusal" or "10 days after the mediation concludes to file a request for a due process hearing in order to continue to invoke the “stay-put” provision." — Notice of Procedural Safeguards, Stay of Placement; Mediation, retrieved Aug 25, 2026.

Independent evaluation at public expense

"You have the right to obtain an IEE at public expense if you disagree with evaluation findings conducted or obtained by the school district." On request, the district must either "Agree to the request and provide an IEE at public expense, or" "Initiate an impartial due process hearing within seven (7) school days of the written request to show that the district’s evaluation was appropriate." Where granted, an independent "educational evaluation at public expense must be completed within 60 school days of a parent's written request unless the school district initiates an impartial due process hearing or the parent or school district offers reasonable grounds to show that such time period should be extended."

Who may be present, and what record is made

You have the right to: "Be accompanied and advised by counsel and by individuals with special knowledge with respect to the problems of students with disabilities"; "Close the hearing to the public"; "Have your child present at the hearing"; and "Confront and cross-examine witnesses". A right to a written or word-for-word record of the hearing at no cost, of the kind stated in some other states’ notices, is not stated in this notice. Recording of IEP meetings, as distinct from due process hearings, is not stated in the sources reviewed.

The three rows above answer the questions an experienced adviser raises first, from the state’s own published documents, or record that a question is not answered in them.

Timelines, as stated in the sources

All quoted; none calculated. From the Notice of Procedural Safeguards except where noted.

On IEP facilitation and mediation. No specific timeline is stated for facilitation. The archived comparison chart separately describes mediation as "Must be scheduled in a timely manner", with a stated statute of limitations of "None."

On the state complaint. To file, "not more than one year prior to the date on which the complaint is received". "Within 60 days after receiving a complaint that meets the requirements listed above" to complete ISBE’s review, "unless that time limit is extended under exceptional circumstances or if you and the district engage in another method of dispute resolution".

On requesting a due process hearing. To file, "within the past two years" of the events or of when the parent reasonably should have known of them. The archived comparison chart separately states an overall "75 Calendar Days*" figure for "Regular hearing request with full resolution session timeline."

On the resolution meeting and period. The resolution meeting must "Be conducted within 15 days of receiving the district’s notice of the request for a due process hearing". "If the school district has not resolved the request for due process hearing to your satisfaction within 30 days of the receipt of the request, the due process hearing will continue. The due process hearing timelines will begin at the expiration of the 30-day period."

On the hearing and its decision. These are two distinct clocks, both quoted from the notice, that should not be conflated: "ISBE and the hearing officer must ensure that a hearing is held within 45 days after receipt of a request for a hearing, unless the hearing officer grants a specific time extension". Separately, "a hearing decision must be rendered within 45 days after the close of the resolution session process". Once concluded, "Within 10 days after the conclusion of the hearing, the hearing officer must issue a written decision".

On appeal. A dissatisfied party "has the right to initiate a civil action" in "any state court of competent jurisdiction or a United States District Court within 120 days after a copy of the decision is mailed to the parties."

On discipline and expedited hearings. "The resolution session must be convened within seven calendar days of the filing of the expedited hearing request"; "The hearing must be conducted within 20 school days of the filing of the hearing request"; and "The hearing decision must be rendered within 10 school days of the close of the hearing".

What any of this means for a particular situation is for the agency and its processes to determine.

Change log

Aug 25, 2026 · Page created (pilot). Captured first-party: ISBE’s Notice of Procedural Safeguards, form 34-57J, dated July 2026, downloaded directly as a PDF and text-extracted; and ISBE’s Effective Dispute Resolution overview page, fetched directly, which carries its own archival notice. Findings recorded rather than smoothed: (1) the Effective Dispute Resolution page states it "has been archived" and its content "may no longer be in effect", yet it is the only source captured for the routes comparison chart and its "75 Calendar Days" overall due process figure; quoted and flagged rather than treated as current; (2) no parent training and information center is named anywhere in the notice; (3) Illinois’ IEE process carries two distinctive figures not seen elsewhere so far: a district must initiate its own due process hearing within seven school days of a parent’s IEE request to contest it, and a granted IEE at public expense must be completed within 60 school days; (4) the due process hearing has two separate 45-day clocks — one for holding the hearing after the request is filed, a second for issuing the hearing decision after the resolution period expires — kept distinct on this page rather than merged into one figure; (5) a parent’s mediation request or a failed/declined mediation triggers its own 10-day windows to preserve the “stay-put” placement, a mechanism distinct from the standard pendency framing used elsewhere; (6) the civil-action appeal window is 120 days, longer than the 28-, 30-, or 90-day windows seen in other states captured; (7) signed mediation or resolution agreements may be voided by either party within three business days of signing. Capture pending: The Parent Guide, the Quick Guide to Special Education Dispute Resolution Processes for Parents, the full text of 23 Ill. Admin. Code Part 226, and the state complaint and due process request forms. Internet Archive captures: to be added. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-08-25. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.