Categories Eligible for Special Education Services
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A student with a disability is an individual who:
- Has reached the age of 5 years
on or before October 15,
- Has neither graduated from a
secondary school program with a regular high school
diploma nor reached 20 years of age at the start
of the school year, and
- Has been evaluated according
to these rules and has been determined to have a
disability which requires the provision of special
education and supportive services. (MSER, Chapter
101, Section 3.1, p. 10)
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A student may be ineligible for special education services under
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). However, it
is important to note that the student may still be eligible for
services under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (see
Chapter 11).
Categories Eligible for Special Education Services
Because the language is specific for qualifying for identification,
we have quoted the complete section of the Maine Special Education
Regulations (MSER), Chapter 101, Section 3.2 through 3.14 below.
Autism
Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting
verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally
evident before age 3, that adversely affects 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. The term does not apply if a
student's educational performance is adversely affected primarily
because the student has an emotional disability, as defined in
Section 3.5 of these rules.
A student who manifests the characteristics of autism after
age 3 could be identified as a student with autism if the criteria
in the preceding section are satisfied.
Deaf-Blindness
A student who has deaf-blindness exhibits concomitant visual
and hearing impairments, the combination of which causes such
severe communication and other developmental and educational needs
that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs
solely for students with deafness or students with blindness.
Deafness
A student who is deaf has a hearing impairment that is so severe
that the student is impaired in processing linguistic information
through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely
affects the student's educational performance.
Emotional Disability
A student with an emotional disability has a condition which
exhibits one or more of the following characteristics over a long
period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects the
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 behaviors or feelings under normal
circumstances;
- A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; and
- A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated
with personal or school problems.
The term includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to
students who are "socially maladjusted," unless it is
determined that they have an emotional disability.
Hearing Impairment
A student who has a hearing impairment has a hearing impairment
in hearing whether permanent or fluctuating and that adversely
affects the student's educational performance but who is not included
under the definition of deafness in Section 3.4.
Mental Retardation
A student with mental retardation exhibits significantly sub
average general intellectual functioning existing concurrently
with deficits in adaptive behaviors that manifested during the
developmental period that adversely affect the student's educational
performance.
Multiple Disabilities
A student with multiple handicaps exhibits several cocomitant
impairments (such as mental retardation and blindness, mental
retardation and orthopedic impairments, etc.) 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 students who have deaf-blindness.
Orthopedic Impairment
A student with an orthopedic impairment exhibits a severe orthopedic
impairment that adversely affects the student's educational performance.
The term includes impairments caused by 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 contractors).
Other Health Impairment
A student with an other health impairment exhibits 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 hyperactivity disorder,
diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning,
leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever or sickle cell anemia and
that adversely affects the student's educational performance.
(Specific) Learning Disability
A student with a specific learning disability exhibits 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 an 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 Pupil Evaluation Team (PET) may determine that a student
has a specific learning disability if:
- The student does not achieve commensurate
with his or her age and ability levels in one or more of the
areas listed in Paragraph 2 of this section, if provided with
learning experiences appropriate for the student's age and ability
level; and
- The PET finds that the student has a
severe discrepancy between the student's achievement and intellectual
ability as determined by individualized assessment of intelligence
and academic achievement in one or more of the following areas:
- Oral expression
- Listening comprehension
- Written expression
- Basic reading skill
- Reading comprehension
- Mathematical calculation
- Mathematical reasoning
The PET may not identify a student as having a specific learning
disability if the discrepancy between ability and achievement
is primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor impairments;
mental retardation; emotional disability; or environmental, cultural,
or economic disadvantage.
Speech and Language Impairment
A student with a speech and language impairment has a communication
disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language
impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects the student's
educational performance.
Traumatic Brain Injury
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 the student's educational performance. The term
includes 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
include brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or
brain injuries induced by birth trauma.
Visual Impairment (including blindness)
A student with a visual impairment has an impairment in vision
that, even with correction, adversely affects the student's educational
performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
