A. As used in Section 18-201.1 of this title:

1. "Visual impairment" means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance. This includes both partial sight and blindness;

2. "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. The term does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor disabilities, of intellectual disability, of emotional disturbance or of environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage;

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;

4. "Economically disadvantaged" means all children who qualify for free or reduced lunches;

5. "Intellectual disability" means significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the development period, that adversely affects a child's educational performance;

6. "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:

a.an inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory or health factors,

b.an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers,

c.inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances,

d.a general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression, or

e.a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

The term includes children who are schizophrenic. The term does not include children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they are seriously emotionally disturbed;

7. "Gifted" means identified students as outlined in Section 1210.301 of this title;

8. "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";

9. "Multiple disabilities" means concomitant impairments, such as intellectual disability – blindness or intellectual disability – 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. The term does not include deaf-blindness;

10. "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 such as poliomyelitis and bone tuberculosis, and impairments from other causes such as cerebral palsy, amputations and fractures or burns that cause contractures;

11. "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 adversely affects a child's educational performance and 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;

12. "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;

13. "Deaf-blindness" means concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational problems that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness;

14. "Autism" means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three (3), 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. Autism does not apply if a child's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance, as defined in this subsection;

15. "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;

16. "Bilingual" means those students who have limited English speaking abilities or who come from homes where English is not the dominant language as reported on the current year application for accreditation;

17. "Special Education Summer Program" means those summer school programs which school districts may provide for children who are severely or profoundly multiple-handicapped if their individualized education program states the need for a continuing educational experience to prevent loss of educational achievement or basic life skills. Any school district receiving funds for such special education summer programs shall provide services as provided in Section 13-101 of this title; and

18. "Optional Extended School Year Program" means the program defined in Section 1-109.1 of this title.

B. The State Board of Education is hereby authorized to modify and redefine by rule the definitions set out in this section whenever such modification is required to receive federal assistance therefor.

Added by Laws 1981, c. 347, § 18, emerg. eff. July 1, 1981. Amended by Laws 1982, c. 287, § 10, operative July 1, 1982; Laws 1989, 1st Ex. Sess., c. 2, § 109, emerg. eff. April 25, 1990; Laws 1998, c. 246, § 33, eff. Nov. 1, 1998; Laws 2000, c. 308, § 3, eff. July 1, 2000; Laws 2018, c. 228, § 1, eff. July 1, 2018.