IEP Guide for Special Education Eligibility

Take this guide to Special Education Eligibility to your next IEP. When discussing eligibility with the IEP, the team should select the eligibility that best describes the student and the student’s needs in the educational environment.  

First- Exclusionary Factors: 

A student cannot be determined to be a student with a disability if the determining factor is a lack of appropriate instruction in reading, including the essential components of reading instruction, lack of instruction in math, or limited English proficiency. 

The IEP team must also determine that educational impact is not primarily due to environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage, unfamiliarity with the English language, limited school experience, poor attendance, social maladjustment, mental retardation/intellectual delays, visual, hearing, or motor impairment (except in those cases where vision, hearing and/or intellectual delays are part of the eligibility criteria) 

Categories of Special Education Eligibility:
(In order of prevailance per CDC 2015-2016 report of students with Eligiblity) 

1. Specific learning disability (SLD): 288,296
   
2. Speech or language impairment (SLI): 159,755
   
3. Autism (Aut): 97,162
   
4. Other health impairment (OHI): 82,855
   
5. Intellectual disabilities (ID): 43,913
   
6. Emotional disturbance (ED): 24,316
   
7. Orthopedic impairment (OI): 11,745
   
8. Hard of hearing (HOH): 10,326
   
9. Multiple disabilities (MD): 6,620
   
10. Visual impairment (VI): 3,670
    
11. Deafness(DEA): 3,449
    
12. Traumatic brain injury (TBI): 1,706
    
13.  Deaf-blindness (DBL): 103

It is the IEP team’s responsibility to determine if a student has a disability. If the student has more than one disability the team must determine the primary disability.

Related Services

Student must meet one of the eligibility and must also need related service(s). Possible related services could be:

• Adapted Physical Education
• Assistive Technology
• Occupational Therapy
• Physical Therapy 
• Speech-language and audiology services
• Recreation, including therapeutic recreation
• Psychological services 
• Social work services
• Orientation and mobility
• Parent counseling and training

IEP Eligibility Categories Explained (In order of frequency)

SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY (SLD) (California Department of Education: Section 3030(j), Title 5, CCR)

All elements listed below must be determined to establish eligibility.

1. The student may demonstrate a severe discrepancy between intellectual ability and achievement in one or more of the following areas and the student does not achieve adequately for the student’s age or to meet State-approved grade-level standards in one or more of the following areas when provided with learning experiences and instruction appropriate for the child’s age or State-approved grade-level standards: Oral Expression, Basic Reading Skill, Mathematics Calculation, Listening Comprehension, Basic Fluency Skills, Mathematics Problem Solving, Written Expression, Reading Comprehension.
2. The discrepancy is due to a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes: Attention, Visual Processing, Sensory Motor Skills, Auditory Processing, Cognitive Abilities including: Association, Conceptualization, Expression
3. The disability adversely affects the student’s educational performance, and requires special education to meet the student’s needs.

Alternative method: Inadequate achievement measured against expectations for a child’s age or the grade level standards set by the state
Insufficient progress when using a process based on response to scientific, research based interventions (RTI). Evidence of a pattern of strengths and weaknesses in performance, achievement, or both, relative to age, grade level standards or intellectual development.

SPEECH OR LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT (SLI) (California Department of Education: Section 3030(1-4), Title 5, CCR Section 56333 California Education Code)

All elements listed below must be determined to establish eligibility.

1. The student’s disorder, based on an assessment by a language, speech and hearing specialist, meets one or more of the following criteria:
   1. Articulation disorder- The student displays reduced intelligibility or inability to use the speech mechanism which significantly interferes with communication and attracts adverse attention. Significant interference occurs when the production of multiple speech sounds on a developmental scale of articulation competency is below that expected for a student’s chronological age or developmental level. The student does not meet the criteria for an articulation disorder if the sole assessed disability is an abnormal swallowing pattern.
   2. Abnormal voice. A student has an abnormal voice characterized by persistent, defective voice quality, pitch or loudness.
   3. Fluency disorders. The flow of verbal expression including rate and rhythm adversely affects communication between student and listener.
   4. Language disorder when both of the following criteria are met:
      1. Using more than one assessment procedure, the student scores at least 1.5 standard deviations below the mean, or below the 7th percentile, for his or her chronological age or developmental level on tests in one or more of the following areas of language development: morphology, syntax, semantics, or pragmatics. When standardized tests are considered invalid for a specific student, the expected language performance level shall be determined by alternative means as specified on the assessment plan; and
      2. The student displays inappropriate or inadequate usage of expressive language as measured on a representative spontaneous language sample of a minimum of fifty utterances.
2. The disorder is not due to unfamiliarity with English.
3. The disorder adversely affects the student’s educational performance, and requires special education to meet the student’s needs.

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AUTISM (AUT) California Department of Education: Section 3030(g), Title 5, CCR).

To establish eligibility in this category:

1. A written report from a school psychologist which includes all existing information related to any autistic-like behaviors exhibited by the student.
2. Two or more of the autistic-like behaviors are documented in the above written reports:
   1. An inability to use verbal and nonverbal language for appropriate communication and social interaction.
   2. A history of extreme withdrawal or relating to people inappropriately and continued impairment in social interaction from infancy through early childhood.
   3. An obsession to maintain sameness such as resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines
   4. Extreme preoccupation with objects or inappropriate use of objects or both
   5. Extreme resistance to controls
   6. Displays peculiar motoric mannerisms and motility patterns such as repetitive activities and stereotyped movements.Self-stimulating, ritualistic behavior
   7. The behavioral manifestations adversely affect the student’s educational performance, and require special education

OTHER HEALTH IMPAIRMENT (OHI) (California Department of Education: Section 3030(f), Title 5, CCR)

All elements listed below must be determined to establish eligibility..

1. Limited strength, vitality, or alertness including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment.
2. Impairment is due to a chronic or acute health problem 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, or Tourette syndrome. 
3. This health impairment is not temporary in nature.
4. The impairment adversely affects the student’s educational performance, and requires special education to meet the student’s needs.

INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY (ID) (FORMERLY MENTAL RETARDATION (MR)) (California Department of Education: Section 3030(h), Title 5, CCR)

To establish eligibility it must be determined that:

1. The student demonstrates significantly below average intellectual ability.
2. The student demonstrates deficits in two or more of the following adaptive behaviors: Communication, Home Living, Community Use, Health and Safety, Leisure, Self-Care, Social Skills, Self-Direction, Functional Academics, and/or Work
3. The deficits were manifested during the developmental period.

The deficits adversely affect the student’s educational performance, and require special education to meet the student’s needs.

EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE (ED) (California Department of Education: Section 3030(i) Title 5, CCR)

All elements listed below must be determined to establish eligibility.

1. The student exhibits one or more of the following characteristics: An inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors
   1. An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers
   2. Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances exhibited in several situations
   3. A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression
   4. A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.
2. The presenting educational difficulties are not the result of social maladjustment.
3. The behavior has been observed over a long period of time and to a marked degree.
4. The condition adversely affects the student’s educational performance, and requires special education to meet the student’s needs.

ORTHOPEDIC IMPAIRMENT (OI) (California Department of Education: Section 3030(e), Title 5, CCR)

Both elements listed below must be determined to establish eligibility.

1. Documented orthopedic impairment.
2.  The impairment adversely affects the student’s educational performance and requires special education to meet the student’s needs.

HARD OF HEARING (HOH) (California Department of Education: Section 3030(a), Title 5, CCR)

The following must be in evidence to establish eligibility.

1. A current audiological evaluation completed by a qualified audiologist. All non-district assessments have been reviewed by a District Educational Audiologist.
2. The hearing impairment, without amplification, makes it difficult for the student to access language communication through hearing, but the impairment is not of a level of severity to establish eligibility under the definition of Deafness.
3. The hearing impairment, whether permanent or fluctuating, adversely affects expressive and/or receptive language and communication.

The impairment adversely affects the student’s educational performance, and requires special education to meet the student’s needs.

MULTIPLE DISABILITIES (MD) (California Department of Education: 34 CFR, Section 300.7 (c)(7)) (34 CFR, Section 300.7 (c)(7))

One of the following concomitant eligibilities:

• Multiple Disabilities, Hearing (MDH)
• Multiple Disabilities, Orthopedic (MDO)
• Multiple Disabilities, Vision (MDV)

Both elements listed below must be determined to establish eligibility.

1. The student must have at least two impairments to establish eligibility, one of which must be hearing, orthopedic, or vision.
2. The combination of these impairments causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments.

VISUAL IMPAIRMENT (VI) (California Department of Education: Section 3030(d); Title 5, CCR)

All elements listed below must be determined to establish eligibility.

1. A current ophthalmologist or optometrist report indicates a diagnosis of eye disease, limited visual acuity after correction, visual field loss, or total blindness, and
2. For students with low vision, a Functional Vision Assessment indicates the need for special education instruction, services, materials and/or equipment which cannot be provided with modifications or the regular program.
3. The impairment adversely affects the student’s educational performance, and requires special education to meet the student’s needs.

DEAF (DEA) (California Department of Education: Section 3030(a), Title 5, CCR).

In order to establish eligibility there must be evidence of the following:

• A current audiological evaluation completed by a qualified audiologist.

A determination that:

• The hearing impairment limits the student’s access to language and communication through hearing with or without amplification.
• The hearing impairment adversely affects the development of expressive and/or receptive language and communication.

The hearing impairment adversely affects the student’s educational performance, and requires special education to meet the student’s needs.

TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (TBI)

Traumatic Brain Injury means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in a total or partial functional disability or psychological impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. 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 apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or brain injuries caused by birth trauma.

All elements listed below must be determined to establish eligibility.

The student has an open or closed head injury that has affected any or all of the following: cognition, language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking, judgment, problem solving, sensory/perceptual and/or motor abilities, psychosocial behavior, physical functions, information processing, speech.

1. The injury has resulted in a total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment.
2. The injury adversely affects the student’s educational performance, and requires special education to meet the student’s needs.​

DEAF-BLINDNESS (DBL) (California Department of Education: Section 3030(b), Title 5, CCR)

The student must have both impairments to establish eligibility.

• Deafness
• Blindness

(Refer to eligibility criteria for Deafness and for Visual Impairment)

The impairment adversely affects the student’s educational performance, and requires special education to meet the student’s needs.