Deaf/Hard of Hearing & Vision Services

Special Education Coordinator: Jennifer Lonsford

jennifer.lonsford@fwisd.org

817-814-2830

Eligibility

Deaf or Hard of Hearing

A student who is deaf or hard of hearing is one who has been determined to meet the criteria for deafness as stated in 34 CFR, §300.8(c)(3):

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.
or for students who are deaf or hard of hearing as stated in 34 CFR, §300.8(c)(5):
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 section.

Visual Impairment

A student with a visual impairment is one who has been determined to meet the criteria for visual impairment as stated in 34 CFR, §300.8(c)(13):

Visual impairment including blindness means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.

Deaf-Blindness

A student with deaf-blindness is one who has been determined to meet the criteria as stated in 34 CFR,§300.8(c)(2):

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.

In meeting the criteria stated in 34 CFR, §300.8(c)(2), a student with deaf-blindness is one who, based on the evaluations specified in subsection (c)(3) and (12) of this section:

(A) meets the eligibility criteria for a student who is deaf or hard of hearing specified in subsection (c)(3) of this section and visual impairment specified in subsection (c)(12) of this section;
(B) meets the eligibility criteria for a student with a visual impairment and has a suspected hearing loss that cannot be demonstrated conclusively, but a speech/language therapist, a certified speech and language therapist, or a licensed speech-language pathologist indicates there is no speech at an age when speech would normally be expected;
(C) has documented hearing and visual losses that, if considered individually, may not meet the requirements for a student who is deaf or hard of hearing or for visual impairment, but the combination of such losses adversely affects the student's educational performance; or
(D) has a documented medical diagnosis of a progressive medical condition that will result in concomitant hearing and visual losses that, without special education intervention, will adversely affect the student's educational performance.