Family Resource Library – Determining Eligibility

Determining Eligibility

Who Is Eligible?

A child with a disability may be eligible for special education services.  Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) regulations, there are currently 13 categories of disability.  opens in a new windowRead Section 300.8 Child with a disability.

    1. Autism
    2. Intellectual disability
    3. Emotional disturbance
    4. Orthopedic impairment
    5. Hearing impairment
    6. Deafness
    7. Speech or language impairment
    8. Visual impairment including blindness
    9. Traumatic brain injury
    10. Other health impairment
    11. Specific learning disability
    12. Deaf-blindness
    13. Multiple disabilities

    A child also must be in need of specially designed instruction as determined by an evaluation team.

    Teacher helping student

    An evaluation is done to determine if your child meets the criteria listed. The child must 1) have a disability and 2) need specially designed instruction  to be found eligible.

    See the Timelines and  opens in a new windowEvaluation pages for more information about the process.