1. Eligibility Categories
February 18, 2016
Janet Holmes

2. Fire starters :
Our jobs are not easy – a huge thank you for working with D6 students, even those that are struggling

3. Struggling students: Referral paperwork and meetings, then what?
Why the paperwork?
The referral packet and paperwork is important! You help determine what the psych will be looking for in an evaluation
Your input is valuable in the SAT process and meetings – be honest and open with families and team
Team signs referral in SAT meeting (after everything has been gathered as a part of the packet)

4. Referral paperwork and meetings, then what?
Based on what you fill out the psych and team then determine the type of testing needed.
Psychologist and/or SLP has 21 days to get consent to evaluate
Once consent is granted the evaluation must occur within 60 calendar days (remember there are multiple hours of assessment that must be done)
After the assessment is complete there can be up to 15 business days in order to determine eligible for a disability and then an additional 30 calendar days to develop and implement an IEP

5. How does a student qualify?
THERE ARE TWO PRONGS:
1. Child (ages 3 – 21) must meet eligibility criteria for at least one of 13 disability categories
Child must need “specially designed instruction” to make educational progress (not just accommodations).

6. What are the categories that SC recognizes?
Developmental Delay (DD)
Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
Emotional Disability (ED)
Other Health Impairment (OHI)
Intellectual Disability (ID)
Autism (ASD)
Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HI)
Visual Impairment (VI)
Deaf-Blindness
Orthopedic Impairment (OI)
Speech-Language Impairment (SLI)
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Multiple Disabilities (MD)

8. Specific Learning Disability
Basic Reading
Reading Fluency
Reading Comprehension
Math Calculation
Math Reasoning
Written Expression
Oral Expression
Listening Comprehension
Only those 8 areas are identified as LD in SC – (not dyslexia)
Identified in 1 of 2 ways…
Discrepancy – difference between cognitive ability and academic skills (IQ score and an area of academic skills listed) K-2: 15 points 3-12: 22 points OR

9. Specific Learning Disability
Pattern of Strengths and Weaknesses
In the cognitive processes there must be both strengths and weaknesses: everything can’t be weak. The weakness needs to correspond to an academic weakness – let’s look at the assessment…

10. Types of assessment Psychs do BOTH for most disability categories
Cognitive - tests the cognitive capabilities
7 Cognitive Processes
Verbal ability
Problem solving ability
Visual processing
Auditory processing
Long term retrieval
Short term memory
Processing speed
Academic Achievement – tests the academic capabilities
Oral expression
Listening comprehension
Written expression
Basic reading skills
Reading fluency skills
Reading comprehension
Mathematics calculation
Mathematics problem solving

11. LD evaluation will include
Evidence that interventions have been tried and unsuccessful
Observation by someone on the team
Must rule out that these weaknesses are not due to other factors (such as attendance, LEP, or lack of instruction.
This takes TIME – 8-10 hours to test and write report. Multiple testing sessions, breaks, and even planning when the student can be pulled
Psychs do not typically test just one student at a time – they have multiple going

12. Intellectual Disability
Intellectual Disability is defined as significantly sub-average general intellectual function existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a student’s educational performance.
Cognitive, Academic Achievement, and Adaptive Behavior – ALL 2 Standard Deviations BELOW the mean (<70)
3 sub-types:
Mild =
Moderate = 25 – 40
Severe = 0 – 25

13. ID evaluations will include
Cognitive & Academic testing
Adaptive behavior rating scales by parent and teacher

14. Speech Language Impairment
a communication disorder in one of the following areas: (must have adverse affect on education)
Language Impairment (receptive or expressive)
Stuttering / Fluency
Voice Impairment (voice quality, pitch, loudness or resonance)
Articulation Impairment – age appropriate

15. Articulation Sounds Acquisition Ages
By age 3: h, m, n, p, w
By age 4: b, d, f, t, k, g,
By age 5: y (as in yet), ng
By age 6: l, j( as in jump), ch(as in chair), sh(as in shoes), and zh(as in garage)
By age 7: r, s, z
By age 8: v, th(as in thing), th(as in father), blends
By age 9: Child matches the adult standard for the production of all consonant sounds

16. Emotional Disability
Some of the characteristics and behaviors seen in children who have an emotional disturbance include:
Hyperactivity (short attention span, impulsiveness);
Aggression or self-injurious behavior (acting out, fighting);
Withdrawal (not interacting socially with others, excessive fear or anxiety);
Immaturity (inappropriate crying, temper tantrums, poor coping skills); and
Learning difficulties (academically performing below grade level).
Children with the most serious emotional disturbances may exhibit distorted thinking, excessive anxiety, bizarre motor acts, and abnormal mood swings.

17. ED evaluation will include
Rating scales that are significant by teacher and parent
3 Observations by 2 psychs or team
Six months of behavioral data collected
Interview with parent and student (if appropriate)
Behavior plan in place
Evidence that what has been done has not been successful

18. Other Health Impairment
Other Health Impairment means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness or 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 hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, and sickle cell anemia, and Tourette’s Syndrome.
Must have a documented medical diagnosis by a licensed physician or one of our School Psychs and be able to show that it adversely affects educational performance. A student could have medical diagnosis, but not need services - thus need for the condition to adversely affect education and prong 2.

19. OHI evaluation may include
If thinking OHI due to ADHD
Significant rating scales by parent and teacher
Observations
It is up to the parent if they choose to talk with a physician and take medication.
We cannot recommend medication!

20. Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 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 experience.
The term does not apply if a child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has a serious emotional disturbance, as defined in the section on emotional disability.

21. ASD evaluation will include
ADOS – Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule is a semi- structured assessment of communication, social interaction, and play (or imaginative use of materials) for individuals suspected of having autism or other pervasive developmental disorders.
Interview with parents
Behavior rating scales by parent and teacher
3 observations (in different settings on different days)
Cognitive & academic testing

22. Developmental Delay
Students age 3 through age 9
5 Areas to Assess: Cognition, Communication, Motor, Activities of Daily Living, Social-Emotional Development…can be found eligible based on one to five areas of deficit.
Often involves multiple and lengthy rating scales
For children ages 6 – 8, there is evidence that the delay is not due to:
Lack of appropriate reading instruction
Lack of appropriate math instruction
Limited English proficiency; or
The presence of any other disability for children ages 6 through 7.

23. Visual Impairment
Visual impairment, including blindness, means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a student’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
To be eligible for services, must have one of the following…
The visual acuity, as determined by a licensed optometrist or ophthalmologist, with correction is 20/70 or worse in the better eye.
The visual acuity, as determined by a licensed optometrist or ophthalmologist, with correction is 20/70 with correction in the better eye, and there is documentation of either of the following conditions:
A diagnosed progressive loss of vision
A visual field of twenty (20) degrees or less

24. Deaf Blind
Deaf-Blindness are simultaneous hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and education problems that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for students with deafness or students with blindness or severe disabilities.

25. Orthopedic Impairment
Orthopedic impairment means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a student’s education performance.
The disability limits normal function of bones, muscles, or joints due to congenital anomaly (e.g., clubfoot, absence of some member, etc.) impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc.), and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).

26. Deaf and Hard of Hearing
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 student’s educational performance
Hearing Impairment means impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance

27. Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injured 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.
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 induced by birth trauma.
This is the most comprehensive evaluation required by the regulations!

28. Multiple Disabilities
Multiple disabilities are simultaneous impairments (such as ID-blindness, ID –Orthopedic, etc.), by which the combination causes such severe educational problems that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include deaf-blindness.

29. Thanks for coming!