Special Education Eligibility Categories

What do they really mean?

So this slightly varies state to state but IDEA (the federal law surrounding special education) covers 13 eligibility categories. Some are fairly self-explanatory but many are full of jargon and hard to understand so I’m gonna break them down for you.

Eligibility categories

1. Autism- ASD is a developmental disability that usually effects social and communication skills.
2. Other Health Impairment- includes health problems that affect educational performance. Often ADHD falls into this category
3. Significant developmental delay- delays that are present in more than 2 developmental areas
4. Specific learning disability- covers a specific set of learning challenges including reading, writing, listening, speaking, and doing math.
5. Emotional Disturbance (Emotional Behavioral Disability)- usually looked at when a emotional or mental health issue is adversely affecting their educational performance -i.e. anxiety, depression, extreme behaviors
6. Orthopedic Impairment- this includes physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy.
7. Traumatic Brain Injury- a brain injury caused by an accident or large amounts of physical force
8. Speech Language Impairment- includes difficulties in speech and/or language such as articulation, stuttering, and receptive language.
9. Visual Impairment- includes vision problems including blindness or partial blindness, cortical visual impairments.
10. Deafness- only includes those whose hearing cannot be corrected by a hearing aid.
11. Hearing Impairment- any hearing loss not covered under the category of deafness.
12. Deaf-Blindness- includes severe vision and hearing loss.
13. Intellectual Disability- classified as below average cognitive functioning, including self-help skills, communication, and social skills.

State differences

There are many states with slightly different names or categorizations for these eligibility categories but most can be categorized this way. Check your state’s Department of Instruction to find checklists and and eligibility criteria. For instance, I live in Wisconsin and that can be found here.

For me, this is just a stepping stone in understanding the special education process and evaluation process. I have creating a template in my TpT store to help support teachers in leading parents through this process.

I love these templates to help work through the criteria. For me, it’s about being family friendly and efficient. If you want more like that, check out my membership for exclusive templates!