Catch the Challenge!      CBISD Special Programs           Learn for Life!
 

What is Special Education?

Special Education is services, accommodations, and modifications tailored to meet the specific needs of individual students found to be eligible.  Services range from monitoring progress, to Speech Therapy, Content Mastery Class, Resource classes, and Self-Contained programs, Physical or Occupational Therapy to other educational services.

Eligibility for Special Education Services

A student must meet eligibility criteria for special education services.  They must have a diagnosis of a specific disability and must have an educational need for special education.  The disabilities recognized in Texas are:

Auditory Impairment (AI)
A student with an auditory impairment may meet criteria for either deafness or for a hearing impairment.  Deafness is a hearing impairment so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification adversely affecting the child’s educational performance.  Hearing impairment is impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, adversely affecting a child’s educational performance but is not included under the definition of deafness.
Autism (Au)
Autism is a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction generally evident before age three adversely affecting a child’s educational performance.  Other characteristics 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.  Students diagnosed with pervasive developmental delay (PDD) may meet criteria under the eligibility of autism.  The term does not apply if a child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance.
Deaf-Blindness (DB)
Deaf-blindness is concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs which cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.
Emotional Disturbance (ED)
Emotional disturbance is a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree and adversely affects a child’s educational performance:

         Inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors

         Inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers

         Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances

         General pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression

         Tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems

The term includes schizophrenia.  The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined they have an emotional disturbance.
Mental Retardation (MR)
Mental retardation is a significant sub-average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, which adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
Multiple Disabilities (MD)
Multiple disabilities is concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness, mental retardation-orthopedic impairment, etc), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs which cannot be accommodated in special education based on one of the impairments.  The term does not include deaf-blindness.
Non-categorical Early Childhood (NCEC)
Non-categorical early childhood (NCEC) may be used for children ages three through five who are suspected of meeting criteria for autism, emotional disturbance, learning disability, or mental retardation.
Orthopedic Impairment (OI)
Orthopedic impairment is a severe orthopedic impairment adversely affecting a child’s educational performance.  The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e.g., clubfoot, absence of some member, etc), impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc), and impairments from other causes (e.g. cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures). 
Other Health Impairment (OHI)
Other health impairment means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, resulting 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, and sickle cell anemia, and

         Adversely affects a child’s educational performance

Specific Learning Disability (LD)
Specific learning disability is:

        A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, manifesting itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such 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 Impairment (SI)
Speech or language impairment is a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment, or voice impairment, adversely affecting a child’s educational performance.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Traumatic brain injury means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, adversely affecting 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 (VI)
Visual impairment including blindness means impairment in vision; even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance.  The term includes both partial sight and blindness

School Psychologists and Diagnosticians
Jennifer Kelly, LSSP
Linda Loudakis
Coralie O’Neil, LSSP
 Special Programs Counselor
Carolyn Hubenak

Links
Texas Department of Education
www.tea.state.tx.us
Council for Exceptional Children
http://www.cec.sped.org/
Arc of Gulf Coast
http://www.arcgc.org
Attention Deficit Disorder Association
http://www.adda-sr.org/
ADHD Primer from NASP
http://www.naspcenter.org/principals/nassp_adhd.html
Autism Spectrum Information from NASP
http://www.naspcenter.org/pdf/Autism204_blue.pdf
Disabilities Resources
www.disabilityresources.org
LD Information from NASP
http://www.nasponline.org/publications/cq325ldinsert.html
Learning Disabilities Association
http://www.ldanatl.org/
Mental Health Association of Houston
http://www.mhahouston.org/cms-home/index.html
Mental Health Association of Fort Bend
http://www.mhafbc.org/
National Center for Learning Disabilities
www.ld.org
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
www.nami.org
National Association of School Psychologists
http://www.nasponline.org/
New Freedom Initiative’s Online Resource for Americans with Disabilities
http://disability.gov/digov-public/public/DisplayPage.do%3fparentFolderId=500

National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities
www.nichcy.org
Office of Special Education Programs US Department of Education
www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP
Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
www.rfbd.org
TEAM Project
www.PartnersTX.org