How Does IDEA, as Amended in 2004, Define the 13 Disability Categories?
IDEA, as amended 2004, provides definitions of the 13 disability categories. These federal definitions guide how states define who is eligible for a free appropriate public education under the new IDEA. The definitions of disability terms are as follows:
1. Autism …
... means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, that adversely affects educational performance. Characteristics often associated with autism are engaging in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to changes in daily routines or the environment, and unusual responses to sensory experiences. The term autism does not apply if the child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has emotional disturbance, as defined in #4 below.
A child who shows the characteristics of autism after age three could be diagnosed as having autism if the criteria above are satisfied.
2. Deaf-Blindness …
… means simultaneous 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 so severe that a child is so impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that it adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
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 child’s educational performance:
- An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors
- An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers
- Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances
- A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression
- A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems (the term includes schizophrenia, but the term does not apply to children 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 a child’s educational performance, but that is
not included under the definition of “deafness.”
6. Mental Retardation …
… means significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning—existing at the same time as deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period—that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
7. Multiple Disabilities …
… means simultaneous impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness, mental retardation-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the combination of which causes 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.
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 (e.g., clubfoot, absence of some member), impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, 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. The impairments:
- 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, or sickle cell anemia
- Adversely affect a child’s educational performance
10. 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 an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to compute 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.
11. Speech or Language Impairment …
… means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, or a language or 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. The term 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. The term does not include brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or brain injuries incurred by birth trauma.
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.