Exceptionalities

Definition: Autism means a developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction generally evident before the age of three (3) that adversely affects educational performance. This includes other pervasive developmental disorders. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or changes in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences.

Definition: 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.

Definition: Developmental Delay means a delay that adversely affects daily life and/or educational performance in one or more of the following areas: 1. Adaptive, 2. Cognitive, 3. Communication, 4. Social or emotional and/or, 5. Physical, 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.

Definition: Emotional Disability 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) 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 feeling under normal circumstances; 4)  Ageneral pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or 5) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears with personal or school problems. Emotional disability includes schizophrenia. The term does not include children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disability as defined herein.

Definition: 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.

Definition: Intellectual Disability 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.

Definition: Multiple Disabilities means concomitant impairments (such as intellectual disability-blindness, or intellectual disability-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.

Definition: 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.

Definition: 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, 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.

Definition: 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 the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical computations, 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 intellectual disability, or emotional disability, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

Definition: 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.

Definition: 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.

Definition: 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.

Definition - Intellectually gifted children and youth are those who perform or who have demonstrated the potential to perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment. These children and youth require services not ordinarily provided by the regular school program. Children and youth possessing these abilities can be found in all populations, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor. Teachers, counselors, administrators, parents, or guardians, peers, self, or any other individuals with knowledge of the student's abilities may refer a student.  Additionally, all second grade students will be observed as potential enrichment referrals using a characteristics checklist. For each student referred, information is gathered in the areas of Aptitude, Characteristics, and Performance.  The information is entered on a matrix where points are assigned according to established criteria.  The total number of points earned determines if the student qualifies for enrichment services. To make a referral, contact the administrator at your child's school.