Children with disabilities shall mean those children who have been verified by a multidisciplinary evaluation team per 92 NAC 51-006 as children with autism, behavior disorders, deaf-blindness, hearing impairments, mental handicaps, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, specific learning disabilities, speech-language impairments, traumatic brain injury, or visual impairments who, because of these impairments, need special education and related services.

The terms used in this definition are defined as follows:

Autism

Autism shall mean a developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before the age of three, that adversely affects 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 include children with characteristics of the disability category “emotional disturbance.”

Emotional Disturbance

Emotional disturbance shall mean a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree which adversely affects the child’s educational performance or, in the case of children below age five, development;

  • An inability to learn which 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.

The term includes children with schizophrenia. The term does not include children with social maladjustment’s unless it is determined that they have behavioral disorders. This term parallels the federal definition of seriously emotionally disturbed.

Deaf-Blind

Deaf-Blind shall mean concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational problems that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or blindness.

Developmental Delay

Developmental delay shall mean either a significant delay in the function of one or more of the following areas: cognitive development; physical development; communicative development; social or emotional development; or adaptive behavior or skills development or a diagnosed physical or medical condition that has a high probability of resulting in a substantial delay in function in one or more of such areas. A child remains eligible for services under the category of developmental delay through the school year in which the child reaches age nine.

Hearing Impairment

Hearing Impairment shall mean a hearing loss or condition which is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, which adversely affects development or educational performance. Hearing impairments shall also mean a hearing impairment, whether permanent or fluctuating, which adversely affects a child’s development or educational performance. This term parallels the state and federal definitions of hearing impairments including deafness.

Intellectual Disability

Intellectual disability shall mean significantly sub average general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, which adversely affects a child’s development or educational performance.

Multiple Impairments

Multiple Impairments shall mean concomitant impairments (such as mental handicap-visual impairment, mental handicap-orthopedic impairment, etc.) the combination of which causes such severe developmental or educational problems that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include children with deaf-blindness.

Orthopedic Impairment

Orthopedic Impaired shall mean a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s development or educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomalies, impairments caused by disease, and impairments from other causes.

Other Health Impairment

Other Health Impaired shall mean 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 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, and sickle cell anemia; which adversely affects a child’s development or educational performance.

Specific Learning Disability

A Specific Learning Disability shall mean a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or to 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 children who have learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; of mental handicaps; or behavioral disorders; or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

Speech-Language Impairment

Speech-Language Impaired shall mean a communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, which adversely affects a child’s development or educational performance.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury shall mean an injury to the brain caused by an external physical force resulting in total or partial functional disability or psycho social impairment, or both, that adversely affects educational performance. The term includes open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, including cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem solving; sensory, perceptual and motor abilities; psycho social behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech. The term does not include brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or brain injuries induced by birth trauma.

Visual Impairment

Visual Impairment shall mean a vision condition that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s development or educational performance. The term includes both the partially seeing and blind.

 

For more information please contact Kristi Backora Gross, Director of Special Education at (402) 289-2579.