• Special Education Family Toolkit

  • Special education is special instruction designed to meet the unique needs of a student with a disability. The services are provided at no cost to the parents and guardians and can be provided in many different settings.

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    What is an Intellectual Disability?

    When a student requires specially designed instruction due to overall developmental differences in all of the following areas:

    • Intellectual Functioning (e.g. reasoning, problem solving)
    • Adaptive (everyday practical life skills)
    • Academic Achievement 
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    What is a Speech Language Impairment?

    When a student requires specially designed instruction due to:

    • Differences in how a student speaks/makes speech sounds AND/OR understands and uses language in all the student’s language(s)
    • Voice quality or loudness
    • Repeating sounds or parts of sounds called stuttering
    • Speech sounds are difficult to understand
    • Understanding, learning and using words
    • Using words, grammar and sentences that follow the language’s rules in a way that makes sense to 
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    What is Deafblind?

    A need for specially designed instruction due to a visual and hearing impairment including:

    • Either hearing or vision impairment but shows unclear or irregular responses in the other sensory area which requires more testing or...
    • Qualifies for vision or hearing disability and...
    • Has a physical issue that affects other senses
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    What is an Orthopedic Impairment?

    When a student requires specially designed instruction due to a fine or gross motor impairment that lasts at least 60 days, impacts quality, speed, or accuracy of movement and at least two of the following areas:

    • Small movements (Using hands, fingers)
    • Larger movements (walking, larger muscle groups)
    • Self-help
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    What is Autism Spectrum?

    When a student requires specially designed instruction due to differences in:

    • Social communication
    • Interacting with others using back and forth communication and flexible play
    • Non-verbal communication using body language, eye contact, gestures and facial expressions
    • Developing and understanding relationships-understanding what other people are thinking and feeling, adjusting behavior, making friends.
    • Restricted/repetitive patterns of behaviors/activity
    • Insistence on sameness, routines, patterns of behavior and interests
    • Very sensitive or not sensitive enough to noise, touch, smell, lights
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    What is a specific learning disability?

    When a student requires specially designed instruction due to:

    • Pattern of cognitive strengths important for overall learning
    • Pattern of cognitive weaknesses impacting learning
    • Academic weakness compared to peers that is not due to lack of instruction, limited English proficiency, or other related factors 
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    What is Deafness or being hard of hearing?

    • Difficulty hearing in one or both ears
    • Difficulty hearing tones (high or low)
    • Difficulty hearing volume (high or low)
    • Not treatable by medical staff (Physician or Nurse) 
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    What is Vision Impairment?

    When a student requires specially designed instruction due to a vision impairment including:

    • A medical report from an eye doctor or other eye specialist that shows the student has a visual impairment that cannot be corrected by medical treatment, therapy or lenses
    • A functional vision evaluation that identifies educational and access needs (e.g. braille, low vision devices) because of the visual impairment
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    What is Emotional Behavior Disability?

    A need for specially designed instruction due to emotional and behavioral needs due to one or more of the below:

    • Inability to learn not due to other factors
    • Inability to establish/maintain relationships
    • Consistent unhappiness/depression
    • Physical symptoms or fears 
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    What is an Other Health Impairment?

    When a student requires specially designed instruction due to a health condition:

    • Medical statement with a health condition that is expected to last at least 60 days
    • The health condition impacts the student’s vitality and alertness
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    What is a Traumatic Brain Injury?

    When a student requires specially designed instruction due to brain injury caused by an external physical force that lasts at least 60 days and results in an impairment in one or more of the following areas:

    • Communication, Behavior, Cognition, memory, attention, abstract thinking, judgment, problem solving, reasoning, and/or information processing; Sensory, perceptual, motor and/or physical abilities
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    What is a Developmental Delay?

    When a student up to the age of nine requires specially designed instruction due to developmental differences in two or more of the following areas:

    • Communication
    • Adaptive (everyday practical life skills)
    • Physical
    • Social/emotional
    • Cognitive