Maryland

The published process

Placement during a dispute

The notice’s own section heading is “Child’s Status During Proceedings:”. Its text states: "During the pendency of any administrative or judicial proceeding (except as provided under the discipline section), unless the parent and public agency agree otherwise, the child must remain in his or her current early intervention or educational placement." "If the proceeding involves an initial application for initial admission to public school, the child, with parental consent, must be placed in the public program until the completion of all proceedings." "If the decision of the ALJ agrees with the parents that a change of early intervention services or education placement is appropriate, that placement becomes the child’s current placement during the pendency of subsequent appeals." — Notice, Child’s Status During Proceedings.

Independent evaluation at public expense

"If a parent disagrees with an evaluation completed by the public agency, the parent has the right to have the child evaluated by someone who does not work for the public agency." "Parents have the right to only one independent educational evaluation at public expense each time the public agency conducts an evaluation if:" "The parents disagree with an evaluation obtained by the public agency;" or "The parents submit to the public agency a written request for an educational evaluation conducted by the public agency and the public agency:" "Does not respond to the request within 30 days; or" "Approves the request but the educational evaluation meeting does not occur, through no fault of the parent, within:" "Sixty (60) days after the date on which the request was received by the public agency;" or "If the State is under a State of Emergency proclaimed by the Governor, ninety (90) days after the date on which the request was received by the public agency." "If parents request an independent educational evaluation at public expense, the public agency must, without unnecessary delay, either approve the request and advise the parent of the process for arranging the evaluation at public expense, or deny the request and file for a due process hearing." "If the public agency initiates a due process hearing and the final decision is that the public agency’s evaluation is appropriate, parents still have the right to an independent educational evaluation, but not at public expense." (Notice, Independent Educational Evaluation)

Who may be present, and what record is made

Either party to a due process hearing "has the right to:" "Represent yourself or be represented by an attorney at due process hearings in accordance with State Government Article §9-1607.1, Annotated Code of Maryland;" "Be accompanied and advised by a lawyer and persons with special knowledge or training with respect to the problems of children with disabilities;" "Present evidence and confront, cross-examine, and require the attendance of witnesses;" "Obtain a written, or, at the parent's option, electronic, word-for-word record of the hearing; and" "Obtain written, or, at the parent's option, electronic findings of fact and decisions." The parent separately "has the right to:" "Have the child present;" "Open the hearing to the public; and" "Have the record of the hearing, the findings of fact, and decisions provided to you at no cost." (Notice, Hearing Rights / Parent's Rights) Recording of IEP or IFSP team meetings, as distinct from due process hearings, is not stated in the sources reviewed; the July 2024 notice was searched throughout for "record," "tape," and "audio" (excluding education-record references), and none address parent recording of a meeting.

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 Parental Rights: Maryland Procedural Safeguards Notice (July 2024) except where noted.

On the difference in timelines, stated together. "MSDE staff generally must resolve a State complaint within 60 calendar days, unless the timeline is properly extended. An ALJ must hear a due process complaint (if not resolved through a resolution meeting or through mediation) and issue a written decision within 45 calendar days after the end of" "the resolution period or the adjusted resolution period, unless the ALJ grants a specific extension of the timeline at the parent's request or the public agency's request." (Notice, Complaint and Due Process introduction)

On an independent educational evaluation. A parent's right to one independent educational evaluation at public expense applies where "The parents submit to the public agency a written request for an educational evaluation conducted by the public agency and the public agency:" "Does not respond to the request within 30 days; or" "Approves the request but the educational evaluation meeting does not occur, through no fault of the parent, within:" "Sixty (60) days after the date on which the request was received by the public agency;" or "If the State is under a State of Emergency proclaimed by the Governor, ninety (90) days after the date on which the request was received by the public agency." (Notice, Independent Educational Evaluation)

On filing a State complaint. "A State complaint must allege a violation that has occurred not more than one year prior to the State receiving the complaint." "MSDE must issue a written decision that contains findings of fact" and conclusions within 60 calendar days of receipt of the State complaint, subject to extension only for "Exceptional circumstances" or voluntary agreement to try mediation. (Notice, State Complaint)

On filing a due process complaint. "The due process complaint must allege a violation that occurred within two years of the date the parent or agency knew or should have known about the alleged action that forms the basis of the due process complaint, or if the State has an explicit time limitation for requesting such a due process hearing under this part, in the time allowed by that State law." Exceptions apply where the public agency misrepresented that it had resolved the issue or withheld required information. (Notice, Due Process Complaint)

On the response to a due process complaint. "If the public agency has not sent a prior written notice to the parents regarding the issues raised by the parent in the due process complaint, the public agency shall send the parent a response, within 10 days of receiving the due process complaint, containing:" "The other party to a due process complaint (parent or public agency) must send the other party a response that specifically addresses the issues in the due process complaint, within 10 calendar days of receiving the due process complaint." "The due process complaint is considered sufficient unless the party receiving the complaint notifies OAH and the other party in writing within 15 days of receiving it" that the receiving party believes it does not meet the content requirements. (Notice, Response to the Due Process Complaint / Sufficiency of Notice)

On the resolution meeting and period. "Within 15 calendar days of receiving a parent's due process complaint, and before the due process hearing begins, the public agency must hold a meeting with the parent and the relevant member or members of the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) team or Individualized Education Program (IEP) team who have specific knowledge of the facts identified in the parent's due process complaint." "If the public agency has not resolved the due process complaint to the parent's satisfaction within 30 calendar days of receiving the complaint (the resolution period), the due process hearing may occur." "The 45-day timeline for issuing a final decision begins at the end of the 30-day resolution period," subject to stated adjustments. (Notice, Resolution Process)

On the written settlement agreement. "If the parent and the public agency enter into an agreement as a result of a resolution meeting, either party may void the agreement within three (3) business days." (Notice, Resolution Settlement Agreement)

On additional disclosure of information. "At least five (5) business days before a due process hearing, the parent and the public agency must disclose to each other all evaluations completed by that date and recommendations based on those evaluations that the parent or the public agency intend to use at the hearing." (Notice, Additional Disclosure of Information)

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

Change log

Oct 11, 2026 · Sources moved; safeguards notice superseded; page rebuilt against the July 2024 notice. Both sources were re-captured first-party on 2026-10-11 under recipe tools/recipes/maryland.json, at new addresses and by a new transport, and every statement on this page was re-verified against the new capture. Findings: (7) the sources moved. marylandpublicschools.org now redirects to msde.maryland.gov, a rebuilt MSDE site, and both addresses this page had cited now land on its "Page not found" page. The branch overview page is at https://msde.maryland.gov/academics-0/special-education/family-support-dispute-resolution-branch, and MSDE's Special Education publications page lists the safeguards notice at https://msde.maryland.gov/programs/Documents/Special-Ed/MITP/about/Maryland-Procedural-Safeguards-Notice-A.pdf; (8) the new host refuses automated fetching. msde.maryland.gov returns HTTP 403 to curl on every address tried, with and without a browser user-agent, while a browser loads the same addresses; the nightly checks of 2026-10-08, 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-11 failed on that block (queue entry FA-Q-20261011-01). The overview page is now captured through a browser and verified against a hash computed there, and the notice by an attended browser download whose SHA-256 (c1de1a5cf710eca8c68041672dff21346cc57488337ccf67cd87c6fa92017c70, 509,963 bytes) is recorded in the packet; (9) the safeguards notice this page quoted, Revised January 2021 and Effective January 27, 2021, is superseded by the July 2024 notice (51 pages; dated "July 2024" on its cover and in every running header; MSDE's publications page gives its revision date as July 1, 2024). The January 2021 edition carried an effective-date line; the July 2024 edition carries none. Every quotation this page takes from the notice was searched for in the July 2024 text. All but two are there verbatim. The two that are not: (9a) independent educational evaluation. The 2021 notice read "Parents have the right to only one independent educational evaluation at public expense each time the public agency conducts an evaluation if the parents disagree with an evaluation obtained by the public agency." The 2024 notice ends that sentence at "if:" and gives two grounds: the parents' disagreement with an evaluation, as before, or a written request for an evaluation by the public agency that the agency does not answer within 30 days, or approves without the evaluation meeting taking place, through no fault of the parent, within sixty days of receipt (ninety days under a State of Emergency proclaimed by the Governor). The Independent evaluation row now quotes the 2024 wording, and the new windows are added under Timelines; (9b) the sentence stating the State complaint and due process timelines together is unchanged in wording, but in the 2024 layout a page break (a footnote and the running header) falls inside it, after "within 45 calendar days after the end of"; it is now quoted as two spans either side of the break. Changes in the 2024 notice that this page does not quote: the State complaint's proposed-resolution item is now prefaced "if the complainant would like to request a remedy," and marked "(optional)", and no longer says "and available to the party"; the officials named in the front matter changed; and the non-discrimination statement now adds sexual orientation and gives a new Equity Assurance and Compliance Branch contact. The routes, the offices and their address and phone for State complaints, pendency, hearing rights, and every other timeline quoted here are unchanged. The search for any statement on recording IEP or IFSP team meetings was repeated in the 2024 text, with the same result; (10) the error here is ours. The languages survey that added this page's Languages row on 2026-08-26 had already recorded MSDE's English notice as revised July 1, 2024, under a filename different from the one the capture recipe fetched; the recipe kept capturing the January 2021 file, which MSDE still served at its old address, and this page went on quoting that superseded edition until this rebuild; (11) Tracy Givens is now listed on the overview page as "Education Program Specialist I", with an office phone of 410-767-1424; the page previously gave her title as "Supervisor, Complaint Investigation Section". The Offices row now carries the current title and phone; (12) the doubled-domain address recorded in finding (5) is gone. The new page prints both branch addresses plainly, with no obfuscation and no trailing domain; (13) MSDE's general number no longer appears in the page body. It prints in the site footer as "Main: 410-767-0100", beside 200 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-2595, and the capture's scope now takes the footer along with the page's main content, leaving out the navigation menus; (14) the overview page now links its Family Support Services Birth-21 page and its Reports (State Complaint Letters of Finding and Due Process Hearing Decisions, Fiscal Years 2019 to 2026) to Internet Archive copies of the old marylandpublicschools.org pages rather than to pages on the new site. Those reports are listed in the source map as not captured. Sources last checked and the source map now read 2026-10-11. Still not captured: the documents the overview page links (listed in the source map) and the notice's translations. Internet Archive captures: to be added. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter (review confirmed 2026-10-11). Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.

Sep 4, 2026 · Contact addresses recovered; sources re-checked. Both sources were re-fetched and the packet rebuilt under decode_cfemail, added to the shared capture reader on Sep 3, 2026. The two FSDR Branch email addresses that finding (3) below recorded as unreadable are now readable and are published in the docket: rebecca.walawender@maryland.gov and tracy.givens@maryland.gov. The obfuscation was Cloudflare’s, applied to the served markup; the addresses were always published, and the earlier capture recorded the placeholder the tool saw rather than the address MSDE stated. Findings: (5) MSDE’s markup places a literal "@maryland.gov" immediately after the obfuscated span inside Rebecca Walawender’s mailto: anchor, so the address renders on the live page with a doubled domain, "rebecca.walawender@maryland.gov@maryland.gov"; the capture reproduces that verbatim, and the docket publishes the single-domain address the anchor’s own href carries. Tracy Givens’ entry has no such trailing text. This is recorded as a discrepancy in the source, reconciled nowhere; (6) the notice text itself is unchanged from the Aug 29, 2026 capture — the only differences in the rebuilt packet are the two decoded addresses, retrieval dates, and capture-header metadata. No quotation on this page changed. Both the markdown and the HTML check at zero failures against the rebuilt packet. Internet Archive captures: to be added. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.

Aug 25, 2026 · Page created. Captured first-party: the MSDE Family Support & Dispute Resolution Branch overview page (HTML, fetched directly, no date published on the page itself) and the Parental Rights: Maryland Procedural Safeguards Notice (PDF, Revised January 2021, Effective January 27, 2021, text extracted in full with pdftotext). Findings recorded rather than smoothed: (1) no parent training and information center (PTI) is named in either source; the overview page instead links three named organizations under "Links for More Information" (Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings, Community Mediation Maryland, CADRE) and a "Listing of Free or Low-Cost Assistance for Special Education Disputes" resource that was not independently captured; (2) recording of IEP or IFSP team meetings, as distinct from due process hearings, is not addressed anywhere in the notice, searched specifically for this; (3) the overview page’s contact section renders staff email addresses as obfuscated placeholder text in the scraped capture, so only names, roles, and the general MSDE phone number are reproduced; (4) Maryland routes mediation and due process hearings to the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH), described in the notice as "an impartial entity that is not part of MSDE." while State complaints go directly to MSDE — a split-office structure similar to Pennsylvania’s ODR pattern. Capture pending: the IDEA Dispute Resolution Processes Comparison Chart, the Listing of Free or Low-Cost Assistance PDF, the Request for Mediation and Due Process Complaint Form, the State Complaint Resolution Procedures document and translations, both State Complaint forms, both Parent's Guide FAQ documents and translations, and the notice’s non-English translations. Internet Archive captures: to be added. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-08-25. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.

Aug 26, 2026 · Languages row added. A *Languages in these sources* row was added to the docket, generated from a 51-jurisdiction survey of what each state publishes in languages other than English (research/languages.json; method and findings in research/languages-report.md). The state's own pages were re-fetched for this survey on 2026-08-26; no URL is recorded that was not observed in fetched page content or confirmed by fetching it directly. The Spanish notice is dated July 2021 and the English July 1, 2024 — the difference is recorded as a finding, not reconciled. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-08-26. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.