Eligibility for Special Education Services
A student 3 through 22, with a suspected disability, may be eligible to receive special education and related services. First, an assessment needs to be completed to determine whether or not the student has one of the thirteen Federally-defined disabilities. Second, the disability has to adversely impact the student’s educational performance to a degree that requires special education services. Special education decisions are made by the student's Individualized Education Program (IEP) team, which includes the parents, teacher(s), and other specialists.
Special education eligibility categories include:
- Hearing impairment
- Vision impairment
- Hearing and vision impairment
- Intellectual disability
- Autism
- Speech and language impairment
- Emotional disturbance
- Traumatic brain injury
- Specific learning disability
- Orthopedic impairment
- Other health impairment
- Established medical disability
- Multiple disability