Eligibility for Special Education Services

For a student to meet criteria for special education services, he or she must meet one of the following eligibilities set forth by the state of Texas :

Auditory Impairment
A student who qualifies for special education services as a student with an auditory impairment may meet criteria for either deafness or for a hearing impairment.  Deafness means a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects the child’s educational performance.  Hearing impairment means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness. 

Autism
Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction generally evident before age three, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.  Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences.  Students who are diagnosed with a pervasive developmental delay (PDD) may meet criteria for special education services under the eligibility of autism.  The term does not apply if a child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance. 

Deaf-Blindness

Deaf-blindness means concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.

Emotional Disturbance
Emotional disturbance describes 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:

·         An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors

·         An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers

·         Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances

·         A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression

·         A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems

The term includes schizophrenia.  The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance. 

Mental Retardation
Mental retardation means significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, which adversely affects a child’s educational performance. 

Multiple Disabilities
Multiple disabilities means concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness, mental retardation-orthopedic impairment, etc), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education based on one of the impairments.  The term does not include deaf-blindness.

Noncategorical Early Childhood
The disability category noncategorical early childhood (NCEC) may be used for children ages three through five who are suspected of meeting criteria for autism, emotional disturbance, learning disability, or mental retardation. 

Orthopedic Impairment
Orthopedic impairment means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.  The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e.g., clubfoot, absence of some member, etc), impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc), and impairments from other causes (e.g. cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).  

Other Health Impairment
Other health impairment means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including 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, and sickle cell anemia, and

·         Adversely affects a child’s educational performance

Specific Learning Disability
Specific learning disability is defined as follows:

·         The term 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 an 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

·         The term 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.

Speech Impairment
Speech or language impairment means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

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 a child’s 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 to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.

Visual Impairment
Visual impairment including blindness means impairment in vision that even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance.  The term includes both partial sight and blindness.