Categories 

Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting a child's social interaction and verbal and nonverbal communication, generally evident before age 3, that adversely affects learning and 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. 

Blind and visually impaired means even after correction a child's visual functioning adversely affects educational performance. The IEP team may identify a child as blind and visually impaired after all of the following events occur: (1) A teacher of the blind and visually impaired conducts a functional vision evaluation which includes a review of medical information from an ophthalmologist or optometrist, formal and informal tests of visual functioning, and a determination of the implications of the blindness or visual impairment on the educational and curricular needs of the child. (2) An orientation and mobility specialist evaluates the child to determine if there are related orientation and mobility needs in home, school, or community environments. A child may meet the criteria under this subdivision even if they do not have orientation and mobility needs.

Deaf and hard of hearing means a decreased ability to detect sound in one or both ears with or without amplification, whether permanent or chronically fluctuating, which adversely affects a child’s educational performance. This includes academic performance, speech perception, speech production, or communication including language acquisition or expression. A current evaluation by an audiologist shall be one of the components for an initial evaluation of a child with suspected hearing loss. A teacher of the deaf or hard of hearing must be a member of the IEP team when determining eligibility.

Deafblind means a child is both deaf or hard of hearing and blind or visually impaired, the combination of which causes severe communication and other developmental and educational needs such that the individual disability-related needs of the student extend beyond the instruction and supports required for a student who is solely deaf or hard of hearing or blind or visually impaired

Emotional behavioral disability means a condition in which a child demonstrates frequent and intense observable behaviors, either over a long period of time or of sudden onset due to an emerging mental health condition which includes a diagnosis by a licensed mental health professional, which adversely affects the child’s educational performance. The behaviors shall occur in an academic setting in school, in a non-academic setting in school, and in the child’s home or community.

Intellectual disability means significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects the child's educational performance. 

Orthopedic impairment means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes, but is not limited to, impairments caused by congenital anomaly, such as a clubfoot or absence of some member; impairments caused by disease, such as poliomyelitis or bone tuberculosis; and impairments from other causes, such as cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures.

Other health impairment means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, due to chronic or acute health problems. The term includes but is not limited to ADHD, a heart condition, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, nephritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy, lead poisoning, leukemia, diabetes, or acquired injuries to the brain caused by internal occurrences or degenerative conditions, which adversely affects a child's educational performance.

Significant developmental delay means children, ages 3 through 9 years of age, who are experiencing significant delays in the areas of physical, cognition, communication, social-emotional, or adaptive development. Children must be significantly delayed in at least two areas. 

Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or perform 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, motor disabilities, cognitive disabilities, emotional disturbance, cultural factors, environmental, or economic disadvantage.

Speech or language impairment means an impairment of speech or sound production, voice, fluency, or language that adversely affects educational performance or social, emotional or vocational development. 

Traumatic brain injury is an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external 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; speech and language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; communication; judgment; problem solving; sensory; perceptual and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and executive functions, such as organizing, evaluating and carrying out goal-directed activities. The term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or brain injuries induced by birth trauma.