Autism: a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, 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. Autism does not apply if a student’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the student has an emotional/behavioral disability.
Deafblindness: concomitant deafness and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that a student’s educational performance is adversely affected and the student cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for students with deafness or students with blindness.
Deafness: a student who is deaf or hard of hearing which manifests in severe difficulty processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance.
Developmental delay: a student 3-9 years old who is experiencing developmental delays that adversely affect the student’s educational performance in one or more of the following areas: Physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development or adaptive development and who demonstrates a delay on a standardized norm referenced test, with a test-retest or split-half reliability of .80 that is at least:
- 2 standard deviations below the mean in 1 or more of the 5 developmental areas; or
- 1-1/2 standard deviations below the mean in 2 or more of the 5 developmental areas.
Adaptive: The ability to develop and exhibit age-appropriate self-help skills, including independent feeding, toileting, personal hygiene and dressing skills
Cognitive: Comprehending, remembering, and making sense out of one’s experience. Cognitive ability is the ability to think and is often thought of in terms of intelligence
Communication: The ability to effectively use or understand age-appropriate language, including vocabulary, grammar, and speech sounds
Physical: Fine and/or gross motor skills requiring precise, coordinated, use of small muscles and/or motor skills used for body control such as standing, walking, balance, and climbing
Social or emotional: The ability to develop and maintain functional interpersonal relationships and to exhibit age appropriate social and emotional behaviors
Emotional/behavioral disability: a condition where the student exhibits 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:
- 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.
- Includes schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions. The term does not apply to students who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional/behavioral disability.
Hard of hearing: difficulty hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness in this section.
Intellectual disability: significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance.
Multiple disabilities: concomitant impairments, 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, multiple disabilities does not include deafblindness.
Orthopedic impairment: a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a student’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).
Other health impairment: 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 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
- Adversely affects a student’s educational performance.
Reproduced from WAC 392-172A-01035
Specific learning disability: 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, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance.
Specific learning disability 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.
Speech or language impairment: a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance.
Traumatic brain injury: 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 student’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.
Visual impairment including blindness: an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a student’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
PAVE’s policy is to offer support, information, and training to families, professionals, and those interested in various topics. Please note that PAVE is not a legal services agency and cannot provide legal advice or representation. The information is not intended for legal counsel and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice.