Disability Classifications:
Disabilities (below) are listed in order of prevalence in
Norwalk Public Schools; for more information, visit the State of Connecticut
Department of Education website,
“Special Education Strategic School Profile 2005-06”
or
click here to link
for Norwalk School District. You can also get to the
State of Ct
Sped Homepage by
clicking here.
Definition:
Specific learning disability is defined as follows: (i) General. The term
means 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
do math calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities,
brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia and developmental aphasia.
(ii) Disorders not included. The term does not include
learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor
disability, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of
environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage.
Definition: Speech or language impairment means a communication
disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment,
or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance.
Definition: Other Health Impairment means
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 (i) 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, and sickle
cell anemia; and (ii) Adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
Definition: Emotional Disturbance is defined as
follows: (i) The term means a condition exhibiting one or more of the
following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree
that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. (A) An inability
to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health
factors. (B) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal
relationships with peers and teachers. (C) Inappropriate types of behavior
or feelings under normal circumstances. (D) A general pervasive mood of
unhappiness or depression. (E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or
fears associated with personal or school problems.
(ii) The term includes schizophrenia. The term does not
apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that
they have an emotional disturbance.
Intellectual Disability
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4.9% of Norwalk Special Ed Students
Definition: Mental retardation means
significantly sub average general intellectual functioning, existing
concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the
developmental period, that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance.
Autism
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3.7% of Norwalk Special Ed Students
Definition: 1 (i) 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 experiences. The term does not apply if a child’s
educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child
has an emotional disturbance, as defined under “Emotional Disturbance” of
this breakdown. (ii) A child who manifests the characteristics of “autism”
after age 3 could be diagnosed as having “autism” if the criteria in
paragraph (1)(i) of this section are satisfied.
Other
Disabilities
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5.7% of Norwalk Special Ed Students
Definitions:
Deaf-blindness means concomitant hearing
and visual 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 children with
deafness or children with blindness.
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
child’s educational performance.
Hearing Impairment means an impairment in
hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s
educational performance but that is not included under the definition of
deafness in this section.
Multiple Disabilities means concomitant
impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness, mental
retardation-orthopedic impairment, 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 deaf-blindness.
Orthopedic Impairment means a severe
orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’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
contractures.)
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 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 to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.
Visual impairment including blindness
means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects
a child’ educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and
blindness (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1401 (3)(A) and (B): 1401 (26)
