IDEA Disability Categories

IDEA defines a "child with a disability" as a child evaluated in accordance with IDEA regulations as having one or more of the 14 below categories of disability. A student who has a condition that is not identified as or fall within one of these categories is not considered a "child with a disability" under IDEA and is not eligible for special education and related services under IDEA.

Autism: a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, that is generally evident before age 3 and adversely affects a child’s 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 apply if a child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disability. A child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age 3 could be identified as having autism if the criteria described above are satisfied.

Deaf-blindness: concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational problems that the student cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely as a student with deafness or a student with blindness.

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

Developmental delay: the presence of a 25 percent delay, using a child’s adjusted or chronological age, and as measured and verified by appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures in one or more of the following developmental areas: cognitive development; physical development, including vision and hearing; communication development; social or emotional development; or adaptive development; or atypical development or behavior, which is demonstrated by abnormal quality of performance and function in one or more of the above specified developmental areas; or interferes with current development, and is likely to result in subsequent delay (even when diagnostic instruments or procedures do not document a 25 percent delay); or a diagnosed physical or mental condition that has a high probability of resulting in developmental delay, with examples of these conditions including chromosomal abnormalities; genetic or congenital disorders; severe sensory impairments; inborn errors of metabolism; disorders reflecting disturbance of the development of the nervous system; congenital infections; disorders secondary to exposure to toxic substances, including fetal alcohol syndrome; and severe attachment disorders. (This is the only IDEA-eligibility category that does not require evidence of educational impact.) For additional information, please refer to the MSDE Technical Assistance Bulletin, Students with Developmental Delay.

Emotional disability: 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 student'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; or a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. It does include schizophrenia but does not include a student who is socially maladjusted unless it is determined that the student has an emotional disability.

Hearing impairment: an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance, but that is not included under the definition of deafness.

Intellectual disability: significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance.

Multiple disabilities: concomitant 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 special education programs solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include deaf-blindness.

Orthopedic Impairment: a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a student’s educational performance, including impairments caused by congenital anomaly such as a clubfoot or absence of some member; impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis); and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).

Other Health Impairment: having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder, 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 student’s educational performance.

Specific Learning Disability: a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. The term includes 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 vision, hearing, or motor disabilities; intellectual disability; emotional disturbance; or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

Speech or Language Impairment: a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects a student’s educational performance. (The determination of eligibility for a speech or language impairment does not require cognitive referencing.)

Traumatic Brain Injury: an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a student’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; and physical functions, information processing, abstract thinking, problem-solving, perceptual and motor abilities, physical functions, 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: impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a student’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.

In identifying a student as having multiple disabilities, the MSDE IEP Process Guide requires IEP teams to specify each disability from any of the three categories of disabling conditions the student’s IEP team identifies as concomitant that causes such severe educational problems that the student cannot be accommodated in special education instructional services solely for one of the impairments. Concomitant means happening or existing along with or at the same time as something else. A student is not required to be identified as a student with an intellectual disability as one of the disabilities.

The three categories include:

• Cognitive includes Autism, Emotional Disability, Intellectual Disability, Specific Learning Disability, Speech or Language Impairment, and Traumatic Brain Injury.

• Sensory includes Deaf-blindness, Deafness, Hearing Impairment, and Visual Impairment including Blindness.

• Physical includes Orthopedic Impairment and Other Health Impairment.

Assessment data must show that the criteria for each of the concomitant impairments are met.