Chapter 21

Making Special Education Eligibility

Decisions

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 Learning Objectives (slide 1 of 2)
• 21-1 Identify and define disabilities recognized
by the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act.
• 21-2 Articulate the difference between an RTI
approach and a discrepancy approach to
identifying a learning disability.
• 21-3 Explain how the need for special
education is established.
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 Learning Objectives (slide 2 of 2)
• 21-4 Describe the composition and
responsibilities of multidisciplinary teams.
• 21-5 Describe the process for determining
eligibility (including procedural safeguards, the
requirements for valid assessment, and the
team process).
• 21-6 Discuss common problems in determining
eligibility.
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 Official Student Disabilities
• Disabilities defined by IDEA:
– Autism
– Intellectual Disability
– Emotional Disturbance
– Traumatic Brain Injury
– Speech or Language Impairment
– Visual Impairment
– Deafness and Hearing Impairment
– Orthopedic Impairments
– Other Health Impairments
– Deaf–Blindness
– Multiple Disabilities
– Developmental Delay
– Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
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 Eligibility Decisions
• Procedures for identification of a student with
disability by IDEA
– Group of qualified professions + parent(s)
– Rule outs: lack of appropriate instruction in
reading or math or limited English proficiency
– Must use information from a variety of sources
– All sources of information must be documented
and considered

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 Autism
• Developmental disability
• Significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal
communication & social interaction
• Generally evident before age 3
• Adversely affects a child’s educational
performance
• How is autism diagnosed?

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 Intellectual Disability
• Significantly subaverage general intellectual
functioning
• Deficits in adaptive behavior
• Manifested during the developmental period
• Adversely affects a child’s educational
performance.
• How is intellectual disability diagnosed?

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 Emotional Disturbance
• 1+ of the following characteristics over a long period of
time and to a marked degree:
1. Inability to learn not explained by intellectual, sensory, or
health factors
2. Inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal
relationships with peers and teachers
3. Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal
circumstances
4. General pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression
5. Tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated
with personal or school problems
• Adversely affects a child’s educational performance
• How is emotional disturbance diagnosed?
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 Traumatic Brain Injury
• Acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical
force
• Resulting in total or partial functional disability and/or
psychosocial impairment
• Adversely affects a child’s educational performance
• Includes open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments
in one or more areas:

• How is Traumatic Brain Injury diagnosed?

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 Speech or Language Impairment
• A communication disorder, such as:
– stuttering
– impaired articulation
– language impairment
– voice impairment
• Adversely affects a child’s educational performance

• How is Speech or Language Impairment diagnosed?

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Deafness and Hearing Impairment
• Impairment in hearing so severe that the child
is impaired in processing linguistic information
through hearing, with or without amplification
• Adversely affects a child’s educational
performance
• How is deafness and hearing impairment
diagnosed?

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 Orthopedic Impairment
• Includes impairments caused by:
– a congenital anomaly
– disease (such as poliomyelitis and bone
tuberculosis)
– other causes (such as cerebral palsy, amputations,
and fractures or burns that cause contractures)
• Adversely affects a child’s educational
performance
• How are orthopedic impairments diagnosed?
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 Visual Impairment
• Impairment in vision even with correction
• Includes both partial sight and blindness
• Adversely affects a child’s educational
performance
• How is visual impairment diagnosed?

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 Other Health Impairments
• Having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including
a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that
results in limited alertness with respect to the
educational environment
• 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
• Adversely affects a child’s educational performance
• How are other health impairments diagnosed?

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 Deaf-Blindness
• Concomitant hearing and visual impairments,
the combination of which causes such severe
communication and other developmental and
educational needs
• Cannot be accommodated in special
education programs solely for children with
deafness or children with blindness
• How is deaf-blindness diagnosed?

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 Multiple Disabilities
• Concomitant impairments (such as mental
retardation–blindness or mental retardation–
orthopedic impairment)
• Combination of which causes such severe
educational needs that they cannot be
accommodated in special education programs
solely for one of the impairments
• Does not include deaf–blindness
• How are multiple disabilities diagnosed?

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 Developmental Delay
• Children ages of 3-9 years
• Need special education
• Are experiencing developmental delays in 1+ of
the following areas:
– physical development
– cognitive development
– communication development
– social or emotional development
– adaptive development
• How are developmental delays diagnosed?
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 Learning Disability
• Inadequate achievement for the child’s age or
not meeting state-approved grade-level standards in
1+ of the following areas, when provided with
learning experiences and instruction appropriate for
the child’s age or state-approved grade–level
standards:

• How is learning disability diagnosed?

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 Diagnosing Learning Disabilities
1. Rule-outs
2. Verification of achievement difficulties
3. Unsuccessful attempts at remediation
4. Evidence of learning disability
– Response to intervention
– Severe discrepancy

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 Establishing Need for Special Education

• Student fails to meet expectations – academic

or behavioral
• With remedial or compensatory education,
student still fails to meet expectations
OR
• Student meets expectations, but the
interventions are too intensive or extensive
for general education to provide

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 Multidisciplinary Team
• Composition • Responsibilities
– Parents – Gathering information
– Student (if appropriate) – Determining if student
– General education has disability
teacher
– Special education
teacher
– Individual who can
interpret the evaluation
results

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Determining Eligibility (slide 1 of 3)
• Procedural Safeguards
– independent evaluation
– prior written notice
– consent
– access to records
– due process and appeal
– attorney fees
– complaint procedures

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Determining Eligibility (slide 2 of 3)
• Valid Assessments
– Whether student has a disability
– Student’s involvement in the general curriculum
– Assessment is not racially or culturally
discriminatory
– Assessments administered in child’s native
language or mode of communication
– Valid for the specific student
– Assesses specific areas of educational need
– Relevant to the diagnostic process

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Determining Eligibility (slide 3 of 3)
• Team Process
– Review existing data
– Gather new data
– Determine if child has a disability
– Write evaluation report

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 Problems in Determining Eligibility
• Special education is NOT for students who
would benefit from it; it is for students with
disabilities who need it
• Federal and state definitions of disability are
imprecise
• Disabilities are not discrete; students
frequently have more than one in varying
degrees
• Parents have label preferences
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