Mississippi

The published process

Placement during a dispute

The notice’s own section heading is "The Child's Placement While the Due Process Complaint and Hearing Are Pending". Its text states: "once a due process complaint is sent to the other party, during the resolution process time period, and while waiting for the decision of any impartial due process hearing or court proceeding, unless you and the MDE or public agency agree otherwise, your child must remain in his or her current educational placement." "If the due process complaint involves an application for initial admission to public school, your child, with your consent, must be placed in the regular public-school program until the completion of all such proceedings." — Notice, The Child’s Placement While the Due Process Complaint and Hearing Are Pending.

Independent evaluation at public expense

"you have the right to obtain an independent educational evaluation (IEE) of your child if you disagree with the evaluation of your child that was obtained by your public agency." "If you request an IEE of your child at public expense, your public agency must, without unnecessary delay, either: (a) File a request for a due process hearing to show that its evaluation of your child is appropriate; or (b) Provide an IEE at public expense, unless the public agency demonstrates in a hearing that the evaluation of your child that you obtained did not meet the public agency's criteria." "You are entitled to only one IEE of your child at public expense each time your public agency conducts an evaluation of your child with which you disagree." (Notice, Independent Educational Evaluations) As in Minnesota’s notice, no specific number of days is stated for the district’s response — only "without unnecessary delay"

Who may be present, and what record is made

Any party to a due process hearing has the right to: "Be accompanied and advised by counsel and by persons with special knowledge or training regarding the problems of children with disabilities;" "Be represented at the due process hearing by an attorney;" "Present evidence and confront, cross-examine, and require the attendance of witnesses;" "Obtain a written, or, at your option, electronic, word-for-word record of the hearing; and" "Obtain written, or, at your option, electronic findings of fact and decisions." As a parent, "You must be given the right to:" "Have your child present at the hearing;" "Open the hearing to the public; and" "Have the record of the hearing, the findings of facts and decisions provided to you at no cost." (Notice, Hearing Rights) Separately from the hearing record, Mississippi’s notice states a right most other states in this project do not publish: "The parent or guardian, or the local educational agency (LEA), has the right to participate in the development of the IEP and to initiate their intent to audio record the proceedings of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings." "The parent or guardian or local educational agency shall notify the members of the IEP team of their intent to record a meeting at least twenty-four (24) hours prior to the meeting." (Notice, Audio Recording of Individualized Education Program Meeting, MS Code Section 37-23-137)

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 Procedural Safeguards notice except where noted.

On the difference in timelines, stated together. "While staff of the MDE generally must resolve a formal State complaint within a sixty (60) calendar-day timeline, unless the timeline is properly extended, an impartial due process hearing officer must hear a due process complaint (if not resolved through a resolution meeting or through mediation) and issue a written decision within forty-five (45) calendar days after the end of the resolution period, as described in this document under the heading Resolution Process, unless the hearing officer grants a specific extension of the timeline at your request or the public agency's request." (Notice, Difference Between Due Process Hearing Request and Formal State Complaint Procedures)

On filing a formal State complaint. The complaint "must allege a violation that occurred not more than one (1) year prior to the date that the formal State complaint is received as described under the heading Adoption of Formal State Complaint Procedures." "MDE includes in its formal State complaint procedures a time limit of sixty (60) calendar days after a formal State complaint is filed" to investigate, take submissions from both sides, and "Issue a written decision to the complainant that addresses each allegation in the formal State complaint" (Notice, Filing a Formal State Complaint / Formal State Complaint Procedures)

On filing a due process complaint. "The due process complaint must allege a violation that happened not more than two (2) years before you or the public agency knew or should have known about the alleged action that forms the basis of the due process complaint." "You or the public agency must request an impartial hearing on a due process complaint within two (2) years of the date you or the public agency knew or should have known about the issue addressed in the complaint." (Notice, Filing a Due Process Complaint / Impartial Due Process Hearing)

On the resolution meeting and period. "Within fifteen (15) calendar days of receiving notice of your due process complaint, and before the due process hearing begins, the public agency must convene a meeting with you and the relevant member or members of the IEP Committee who have specific knowledge of the facts identified in your due process complaint." "If the public agency has not resolved the due process complaint to your satisfaction within thirty (30) calendar days of the receipt of the due process complaint (during the time period for the resolution process), the due process hearing may occur." "The forty-five (45) calendar-day timeline for issuing a final decision begins at the expiration of the thirty (30) calendar-day resolution period with certain exceptions for adjustments made to the thirty (30) calendar-day resolution period, as described below." (Notice, Resolution Process)

On the hearing decision. "The MDE must ensure that, not later than forty-five (45) calendar days after the expiration date of the thirty (30) calendar-day period for resolution meetings" "A final decision is reached in the hearing; and" "A copy of the decision is mailed to each of the parties." "A hearing officer may grant specific extensions of time beyond the forty-five (45) calendar-day time period described above at the request of either party (you or the public agency)." (Notice, Timelines and Convenience of Hearings and Review)

On civil action. "The party (you or the public agency) bringing the action shall have ninety (90) calendar days from the date of the decision of the hearing officer to file a civil action." (Notice, Civil Actions, Including the Time Period in Which to File Those Actions)

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. Captured first-party: MDE’s "Dispute Resolution" landing page (HTML, fetched directly, no date published on the page itself) and the Procedural Safeguards notice from MDE’s Office of Special Education, marked "Revised October 2025" (PDF, fetched directly from mdek12.org’s file host, text extracted in full). Findings recorded rather than smoothed: (1) Mississippi’s notice states outright that the state is a "One-Tier" state — MDE convenes due process hearings itself with no intermediate administrative appeal, and any appeal goes directly to court; (2) the notice states a state-law right, distinct from any other state’s notice captured in this project so far, to audio record IEP meetings under MS Code Section 37-23-137, with a 24-hour advance-notice requirement; (3) the notice states no specific number of days for a district’s response to an independent educational evaluation request, only "without unnecessary delay"; (4) no parent training and information center is named with contact detail in either source, though the notice’s own general-information language points to "a parent advocacy organization" without naming one. Capture pending: the notice’s translated versions, the Due Process Hearing Decisions database, and the Formal State Complaint and Due Process Complaint model forms referenced but not independently fetched this session. Internet Archive captures: to be added. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-08-25. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.