and results in the need for special education and related services. A child may become eligible for this area of disability on his or her third birthday. A child identified with a developmental delay must be reevaluated prior to his or her ninth birthday to determine continued eligibility for special education services. At age nine, a child can no longer be eligible in the area of developmental delay and must be eligible in another area of disability in order to continue special education services. If a child turns nine during the school year and is eligible for an area of disability, that child may continue to receive special education services in his or her current program for the remainder of that school year. A child who turns nine during the school year and is not eligible for another area of disability will be served in general education programs for the remainder of the school year.
Emotional Disturbance means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance:
1. An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors;
2. An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers;
3. Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;
4. A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or
5. A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. Emotional disturbance includes schizophrenia. The term does not include children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance.
(5) Hearing Impairment
Hearing Impairment means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. This term includes both deaf and hard-of-hearing.
(6) Mental Retardation
Mental Retardation means significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with significant limitations in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects the child’s educational performance.
(7) Multiple Disabilities
Multiple Disabilities means concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness, or mental retardation-orthopedic impairment), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities does not include deaf-blindness.
(8) Orthopedic Impairment
Orthopedic Impairment means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by a congenital anomaly, impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures). If a medical diagnosis is presented, the medical diagnosis alone is not enough to justify being identified in the area of orthopedic impairment. The impairment must adversely affect the educational performance of the child.
(9) Other Health Impairment
Other Health Impairment means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette Syndrome. If a medical diagnosis is presented, the medical diagnosis alone is not enough to justify being identified in the area of other health impairment. The impairment must adversely affect the educational performance of the child.
(10) Specific Learning Disability
Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
(11) Speech or Language Impairment
Speech or Language Impairment means a communication disorder in the area of articulation, voice, fluency, or language that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
1. Articulation
Evidence that vision/hearing screening results are satisfactory prior to proceeding with evaluations.
Errors are primarily characterized by substitutions, distortions, additions, and omissions. Phonological errors are in excess of developmental expectations and nondevelopmental processes may be noted. Errors are not stimulable. Connected speech may be unintelligible or may be intelligible only to familiar listeners or within known contexts.
Children who exhibit a tongue thrust are not eligible for speech/language services unless they also exhibit an associated articulation disorder. Speech/language services are not a required service for children who exhibit tongue thrust only.
A child does not meet the criteria for an articulation disorder if the sole assessed disability is an abnormal swallowing pattern.
A child does not meet the criteria for an articulation disorder as a result of dialectal patterns or second language acquisition patterns.
2. Voice
Evidence that vision/hearing screening results are satisfactory prior to proceeding with evaluations.
The child’s voice is abnormal in vocal quality, pitch, loudness, resonance and/or duration and is inappropriate for the child's age and gender. Deviance is noticeable and distracting to any listener. The disorder adversely affects communication.
The voice disorder is not the result of a temporary problem such as normal voice change, allergies, asthma, tonsils and/or adenoid removal or other such conditions.
3. Fluency
Evidence that vision/hearing screening results are satisfactory prior to proceeding with evaluations.
Abnormally dysfluent speech is observed during conversation and/or structured speaking tasks. Listeners are distracted by the child’s dysfluent speech and distracting concomitant behaviors may be observed. The child may exhibit fear or avoidance of speaking.
The child’s ability to communicate is adversely affected by the disorder. Developmental dysfluencies attributable to normal maturation patterns are not considered as a disability
4. Language
Evidence that vision/hearing screening results are satisfactory prior to proceeding with evaluations.
Syntactic, morphologic, semantic, and/or pragmatic errors are observed. The child’s ability to comprehend or use spoken language is adversely affected.
A total language standard score or quotient of at least two standard deviations below the mean (70 or below) on a standardized comprehensive language test containing both receptive and expressive components must be obtained.
Dialectal differences or English as a second language is not considered a language disorder.
(12) Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic Brain Injury means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment or both, that adversely affects educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas such as cognition, language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking, judgment, problem-solving, sensory, perceptual and motor abilities, psychosocial behavior, physical functions, information processing, and speech. The term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or brain injuries induced by birth trauma.
1. Documentation of a traumatic brain injury.
2. Evidence that the traumatic brain injury adversely affects educational performance.
(c) Minimum Evaluative Components. In emergency situations, professional judgment should be used to initially place the child.
1. Medical/neurological evaluation.
2. Individual educational achievement evaluation to serve as initial post-trauma baseline measure.
(13) Visual Impairment
Visual Impairment means a visual impairment that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
