Disability Definitions
State Board of Education Rule 0520-1-9-.01 (15) (i) “Disabilities”
v
“Autism”
means a developmental disability, which significantly affects
verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally
evident before age three (3), 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 experience. The term does not apply if a
child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because
the child has an Emotional Disturbance, as defined in this section.
v
“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 a child’s educational
performance.
v
“Hearing
Impairment”
means an impairment in hearing, whether
permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance but does not include Deafness.
v “Developmental Delay” refers to children aged 3 through 9 who are experiencing delays, as measured by appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures, in one or more of the following areas: physical, cognitive, communication, social or emotional, or adaptive development that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Other disability categories shall be used if they are more descriptive of a young child’s strengths and needs. Local school systems have the option of using Developmental Delay as a disability category.
v “Emotional Disturbance” means a child or youth who exhibits one (1) or more of the characteristics as listed in the state adopted eligibility criteria over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
v “Functionally Delayed” means a child who has or develops a continuing disability in intellectual functioning and achievement which significantly affects the ability to think and/or act in the general school program, but who is functioning socially at or near a level appropriate to his/her chronological age.
v “Intellectual Disability” means substantial limitations in present levels of functioning that adversely affect a child’s educational performance. It is characterized by significantly impaired intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period.
v Intellectually Gifted refers to having intellectual abilities and potential for achievement so outstanding that special provisions are required to meet the child’s educational needs.
v
Multiple
Disabilities”
means concomitant impairments (such as Mental
Retardation-Blindness, Mental Retardation-Orthopedic Impairment), the
combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they
cannot be accommodated by addressing only one of the impairments.
The term does not include Deaf-Blindness.
v
“Orthopedic/Physical Impairment”
means a severe Orthopedic
Impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e.g. club
foot, absence of some member), 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).
v
“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
adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
v “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 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.
v “Speech or Language Impairment” means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or voice impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
v
“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.
v “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.