Categories of Eligibility
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North Carolina Public Schools adhere to federal, state, and local regulation governing services for students with disabilities. Anyone who suspects a child has a disability may refer that child to school employees for consideration of eligibilty. North Carolina recognizes fourteen (14) disabling conditions as the first prong of the comprehensive eligibility process, which may lead to special education services. These fourteen disabling conditions, along with each common acronym are listed below: |
Autism Spectrum Disorder (AU) - a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, which adversely affects a child's educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotypical movements, restricted interests, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences.
Deaf-Blindness (DB) - hearing and visual impairments that occur together, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs.
Deafness (DF) - 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 the child's educational performance.
Developmental Delay (DD) - a child aged three through seven, whose development and/or behavior is delayed or atypical, as measured by appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures, in one or more of the following areas: physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development, and who, by reason of the delay, needs special education.
Emotional Disability (ED) - 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 make educational progress that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; (b) and 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.
Hearing Impairment (HI) - impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Intellectual Disability - Mild, Moderate, or Severe (ID) - significantly below 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.
Multiple Disabilities (MU) - two or more disabilities occurring together, the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments.
Orthopedic Impairment (OI) - a severe physical impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Other Health Impairment (OHI) - having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment and adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Specific Learning Disability (SLD) - 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 the impaired ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations.
Speech or Language Impairment (SI) - a communication disorder, such as an impairment in fluency, articulation, language, or voice/resonance that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) - an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force or by an internal occurrence resulting in total or partial functional disability and/or psychosocial impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Visual Impairment, including Blindness (VI) - an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance.
For more information regarding the specific definitions of the above disabling conditions, please refer to the North Carolina Policies Governing Services for Children with Disabilities.