Disability Information

Services Under IDEA: Who’s Eligible

Not every child is eligible for special education under IDEA, and having a diagnosis doesn’t guarantee eligibility. To qualify, your child must have a disability that falls under one of the 14 categories IDEA covers.

• Autism (AU) 

• Deaf Blindness 

• Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH) 

• Developmental Delay (DD) 

• Emotional Disturbance (ED) 

• Intellectual Disability (ID) 

• Multiple Disabilities (MD) 

• Noncategorical Early Childhood (NCEC) – Until beginning of 2025-2026 

• Orthopedic Impairment (OI) 

• Other Health Impairment (OHI) 

• Specific Learning Disability (SLD) 

• Speech or Language Impairment (SI) 

• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) 

• Visual Impairment (VI)

However, having one of these disabilities doesn’t automatically qualify a child under IDEA. To be eligible, a student must: Have a disability and, as a result of that disability need special education to make progress in school.  For instance, if a student has ADHD and is doing well in school, the student might not be covered by IDEA.