Autism:
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. The term does not apply if a child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance. A child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age three could be diagnosed as having autism if the criteria in this definition are satisfied.

Deafness:
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.

Deaf-blindness:
Hearing and visual impairments occurring at the same time, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education program solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.

Developmental Delay:
A disability affecting a child ages two through six, inclusive:
Who is experiencing developmental delays, as measured by appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures, in one or more of the following areas: physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development; and
Who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.

Emotional Disability:
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; or
A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.
This term includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance.

Hearing Impairment:
An impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, in one or both ears, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness.

Intellectual Disability:
Significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Multiple Disabilities:
Two or more impairments at the same time (for example, intellectual disability and blindness or an intellectual disability and an 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. This term does not include deaf-blindness.

Orthopedic Impairment:
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).

Other Health Impairment:
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 (i) due to chronic or acute health problems such as a heart condition, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, nephritis, arthritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy, lead poisoning, leukemia, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and diabetes; and (ii) adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Specific Learning Disability:
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 do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions 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 or Language Impairment:
A communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, and expressive or receptive language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Traumatic Brain Injury:
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 Including Blindness:
An impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.

Gloucester County Public Schools

Special Education Eligibility Process

Definitions of Disabling Conditions

Independent Education Evaluation IEE

Evaluation

Reevaluation

Eligibility Criteria

Child Study Committee

Child Find Identification of Children with Disabilities