Who is a Student with a Disability?
Student with a disability means a student with a disability
as defined in section 4401(1) of Education Law, who has not
attained the age of 21 prior to September 1st and who is
entitled to attend public schools pursuant to section 3202 of
the Education Law and who, because of mental, physical or
emotional reasons, has been identified as having a disability
and who requires special services and programs approved by the
department.
The terms used in this definition are defined as follows. Please
click on the links for descriptions of each disability.
(1)
Autism means a developmental
disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal
communication and social interaction, generally evident before
age 3, that adversely affects a student’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 student's educational performance is
adversely affected primarily because the student has an
emotional disturbance as defined in paragraph 4 of this
subdivision. A student who manifests the characteristics of
autism after age 3 could be diagnosed as having autism if the
criteria in this paragraph are otherwise satisfied.
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(2)
Deafness
means 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.
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(3)
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 students with deafness or
students with blindness.
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(4)
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 student’s educational
performance:
- (i) an inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
- (ii) an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers;
- (iii) inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;
- (iv) a generally pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or
- (v) a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears
associated with personal or school problems.
The term includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to students who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance.
(5)
Hearing impairment
means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or
fluctuating, that adversely affects the child's educational
performance but that is not included under the definition of
deafness in this section.
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(6)
Learning disability
means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological
processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken
or written, which manifests itself in an imperfect ability to
listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical
calculations. The term includes such conditions 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 visual, hearing or
motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional
disturbance, or of environmental, cultural or economic
disadvantage. A student who exhibits a
significant discrepancy between expected achievement and
actual achievement determined on an individual basis shall be
deemed to have a learning disability.
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(7)
Mental retardation
means 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.
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(8)
Multiple disabilities means
concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness,
mental retardation-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the combination
of which cause such severe educational needs that they cannot be
accommodated in a special education program solely for one of
the impairments. The term does not include deaf-blindness.
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(9)
Orthopedic impairment means
a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a
student's educational performance. The term includes impairments
caused by congenital anomaly (e.g., clubfoot, absence of some
member, etc.), impairments caused by disease (e.g.,
poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc.), and impairments from
other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputation, and fractures or
burns which cause contractures).
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(10)
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 is
due to chronic or acute health problems, including but not
limited to a heart condition, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever,
nephritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy,
lead poisoning, leukemia, diabetes, attention deficit disorder
or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or tourette
syndrome, which adversely affects a student's educational
performance.
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(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 student's educational performance.
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(12)
Traumatic brain injury means
an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical
force or by certain medical conditions such as stroke,
encephalitis, aneurysm, anoxia or brain tumors with resulting
impairments that adversely affect educational performance. The
term includes open or closed head injuries or brain injuries
from certain medical conditions resulting in mild, moderate or
severe impairments in one or more areas, including cognition,
language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking,
judgment, problem solving, sensory, perceptual and motor
abilities, psychosocial behavior, physical functions,
information processing, and speech. The term does not include
injuries that are congenital or caused by birth trauma.
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(13)
Visual impairment including
blindness means an impairment in vision that, even with
correction, adversely affects a student's educational
performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
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