§ 300.8 Child with a disability.
§ 300.8
Child with a disability.
(1)
Child with a disability means a child evaluated in accordance with §§ 300.304
through 300.311 as having mental retardation, a hearing impairment
(including deafness), a speech or language impairment, a visual
impairment (including blindness), a serious emotional disturbance
(referred to in this part as “emotional disturbance”), an orthopedic
impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, an other health impairment, a
specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, or multiple disabilities,
and who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related
services.
(i)
Subject to paragraph (a)(2)(ii) of this section, if it is determined, through an appropriate evaluation under §§ 300.304
through 300.311, that a child has one of the disabilities identified in
paragraph (a)(1) of this section, but only needs a related service and
not special education, the child is not a child with a disability under
this part.
(ii)
If, consistent with § 300.39(a)(2),
the related service required by the child is considered special
education rather than a related service under State standards, the child
would be determined to be a child with a disability under paragraph
(a)(1) of this section.
(b)
Children aged three through nine experiencing developmental delays. Child with a disability
for children aged three through nine (or any subset of that age range,
including ages three through five), may, subject to the conditions
described in § 300.111(b), include a child—
(1)
Who is experiencing developmental
delays, as defined by the State and as measured by appropriate
diagnostic instruments and procedures, in one or more of the following
areas: Physical development, cognitive development, communication
development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development;
and
(c)
Definitions of disability terms.
The terms used in this definition of a child with a disability are defined as follows:
(i)
Autism means a developmental
disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication
and social interaction, generally evident before age three, that
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.
(ii)
Autism does not apply if a child's
educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the
child has an emotional disturbance, as defined in paragraph (c)(4) of
this section.
(iii)
A child who manifests the
characteristics of autism after age three could be identified as having
autism if the criteria in paragraph (c)(1)(i) of this section are
satisfied.
(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.
(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.
(i)
Emotional disturbance means 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:
(B)
An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.
(ii)
Emotional disturbance includes
schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially
maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional
disturbance under paragraph (c)(4)(i) of this section.
(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.
(6)
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.
(7)
Multiple disabilities means
concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness or mental
retardation-orthopedic impairment), the combination of which causes such
severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special
education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple
disabilities does not include deaf-blindness.
(8)
Orthopedic impairment means a
severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's
educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by a
congenital anomaly, 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).
(9)
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—
(i)
Is 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
(i)
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.
(ii)
Disorders not included.
Specific learning disability does not
include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual,
hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional
disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
(11)
Speech or language impairment
means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired
articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that
adversely affects a child's educational performance.
(12)
Traumatic brain injury means 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 child's educational
performance. Traumatic brain injury 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; physical functions; information processing; and
speech. Traumatic brain injury does not apply to brain injuries that are
congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth
trauma.
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