The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines a disability as, "any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions)." There are many different types of disabilities such as intellectual, physical, sensory, and mental illness. The CDC lists a few examples of disabilities, such as those that affect a person's: 

• Vision

• Hearing

• Movement

• Thinking

• Memory

• Learning

• Communication

• Mental Health

• Social Relationships

In the United States of America, states conduct “Child Find” activities in order to identify, locate, and evaluate children with disabilities.  Additionally, it's important to keep in mind that if the school is aware that the student may have a disability (e.g. taking ADHD medication or insulin for diabetes in the nurse's office), the school needs to offer a 504 evaluation to meet the Child Find requirement. Teachers may help identify students who need to be evaluated, and testing scores can also be an indicator that leads to an evaluation. In some cases, parents may request an evaluation or be referred for an evaluation too. In order to evaluate the child, they must be assessed in all areas related to the suspected disability, which will allow a team of professionals and the parents of the child to decide the child’s eligibility for special education services. 

There are different processes for this, but one process is Intervention and Referral Service Meetings (I&RS). This comes before Child Study Team meetings and includes a meeting between stakeholders where they come up with different interventions and implement those interventions for 6-8 weeks. If they’re effective, the interventions remain. If they aren’t, the process then moves on to a Child Study Team (CST) to determine the eligibility for special education services. A CST is composed of professionals who determine eligibility for the child. After eligibility has been decided, the team will meet create an IEP or 504 Plan for the child, and implement the accommodations as outlined by the plan. To ensure high quality instruction is given to all students and that evidence-based interventions are used appropriately for students, a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework and/or Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) approach is implemented.