School Age Disability Categories

School-Age Disability Categories

The state of Ohio requires the educational team, including the parent, to identify a category that has the greatest educational impact to the student. Disability categories do not determine the services a child may receive. In the state of Ohio, students may be eligible for Special Education Services under one of the following categories.   

Autism

Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and non-verbal communication and social interactions, generally evident before age three that adversely affects a child's educational performance. 

There is no test for diagnosing autism. A child can be identified for educational purposes by the local school districts Multifactored Evaluation Team (MFE) for the provision of special education services under the IDEA.  - The Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities 

Blind and Visually Impaired 

Visual impairment  including blindness means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Deaf and Hearing Impaired 

Deafness means a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Hearing impairment means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness in this rule

Deafblind

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

Emotional Disturbances

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines emotional disturbance as follows:

“…a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance:

• An inability to learn that 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.

• A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

As defined by IDEA, emotional disturbance includes schizophrenia but does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance

Intellectual Disabilities

Intellectual disability is defined as a significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.”

• Cognitive disability (mental retardation) means significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. 

Multiple Disabilities

Multiple disabilities means concomitant [simultaneous] impairments (such as intellectual disability-blindness, intellectual disability-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in a special education program solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include deaf-blindness.

A group of qualified professionals and the parents of the child may determine the child has multiple disabilities if the child exhibits:

(1) A combination of two or more areas of disability as defined in rule 3301-51-01 of the Administrative Code, except for a combination that includes a specific learning disability; and

(2) A severe or profound deficit in communication or adaptive behavior documented through the use of individually administered standardized instruments which have been validated for the specific purpose of measuring communication or adaptive behavior.

Orthopedic Impairment

Orthopedic impairment is defined as a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects 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).

The IDEA category of orthopedic impairments contains a wide variety of disorders. These can be divided into three main areas: neuromotor impairments, degenerative diseases, and musculoskeletal disorders. The specific characteristics of an individual who has an orthopedic impairment will depend on the specific disease and its severity, as well as additional individual factors.

Other Health Impairments

Other health impairment means 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 s 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; and Adversely affects a child’s educational performance. 

Specific Learning Disability

Specific learning disability —  General.  Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the 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.

Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of intellectual disability, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.  

Speech or Language Impairment

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) officially defines speech and language impairments as “a communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.” Each point within this definition represents a speech and language subcategory.

• A communication disorder such as stuttering provides an example of a fluency disorder; other fluency issues include unusual word repetition and hesitant speech.

• Impaired articulation indicates impairments in which a child experiences challenges in pronouncing specific sounds.

• A language impairment can entail difficulty comprehending words properly, expressing oneself and listening to others.

• A voice impairment involves difficulty voicing words; for instance, throat issues may cause an abnormally soft voice.

Twice Exceptional Student

Students defined as Twice-exceptional are students who are identified as gifted and who also have a disability as defined by the state of Ohio. The Twice Exceptional Student may receive services from both a Gifted Intervention Specialist or a teacher holding the proper credentials to serve students identified as gifted and a licensed Intervention Specialist. 

Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force or by other medical conditions, including but not limited to stroke, anoxia, infectious disease, aneurysm, brain tumors and neurological insults resulting from medical or surgical treatments. The injury results in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment or both, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries, as well as to other medical conditions that result in acquired brain injuries. The injuries result 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. 

Ohio's educational definition of traumatic brain injury is not restricted to injuries resulting from external trauma. It is more inclusive than the IDEA definition. Ohio's definition covers conditions such as strokes, tumors, and injuries caused by surgeries. This expansion of the federal definition allows more children with brain injuries to be identified under the TBI category for the purpose of receiving special educational services.

Developmental Delay

The developmental delay definition was expanded to include a child who is at least three years of age and less than 10 years of age, who is experiencing developmental delays and needs special education and related services as defined by the operating standards adopted by the state board of education.  "Developmental delay" means a child who is experiencing a delay as determined by an evaluation team, IEP team and other qualified professionals in one or more of the following areas of development:

• Physical development 

• Cognitive development  

• Communication development 

• Social or emotional development

For further information regarding disability specific resources, please visit Ohio Department of Education and Workforce: Educational Disability Categories