Title 4 . Education and Early Development

Chapter 52 . (Repealed)

Section 130. Criteria for determination of eligibility

4 AAC 52.130. Criteria for determination of eligibility

(a) Repealed 8/22/2001.

(b) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with mental retardation, a child must

(1) score two or more standard deviations below the national norm on an individual standardized test of intelligence, and exhibit deficits in adaptive behavior manifested during the developmental period which adversely affect the child's educational performance;

(2) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make the child's educational program effective;

(3) be diagnosed as mentally retarded by a psychiatrist, or by a psychologist who is licensed under AS 08.86, certified under 4 AAC 12.355, or endorsed under 4 AAC 12.395; and

(4) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as qualifying for and needing special education services.

(c) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with a learning disability, a child must

(1) exhibit a specific learning disability as defined in 34 C.F.R. 300.7(c)(10) and 34 C.F.R. 300.541, as revised as of May 11, 1999;

(2) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make the child's education program effective; and

(3) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) in the manner set out in 34 C.F.R. 300.540 - 543, as revised as of May 11, 1999, as qualifying for and needing special education services.

(d) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with an emotional disturbance, a child must

(1) be emotionally disturbed as defined in 34 C.F.R. 300.7(c)(4), as revised as of May 11, 1999;

(2) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make the child's educational program effective;

(3) be diagnosed as emotionally disturbed by a psychiatrist, or by a psychologist who is licensed under AS 08.86, certified under 4 AAC 12.355, or endorsed under 4 AAC 12.395; and

(4) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as qualifying for and needing special education services.

(e) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child who is deaf, a child must

(1) exhibit a hearing impairment that hinders the child's ability to process linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, and that adversely affects educational performance;

(2) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make the child's educational program effective;

(3) be diagnosed by a physician or audiologist as deaf; and

(4) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as qualifying for and needing special education services.

(f) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with a hearing impairment, a child must

(1) exhibit a hearing impairment, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects educational performance, but is not within the meaning of (e) of this section;

(2) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make the child's educational program effective;

(3) be diagnosed by a physician or audiologist as hard of hearing; and

(4) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as qualifying for and needing special education services.

(g) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child who is deaf and blind, a child must

(1) exhibit concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational problems that the child cannot be accommodated in a special education program solely for deaf or blind children;

(2) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make the child's educational program effective;

(3) be diagnosed by an optometrist or ophthalmologist and by a physician or audiologist, as appropriate, as deaf-blind; and

(4) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as qualifying for and needing special education services.

(h) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with an orthopedic impairment, a child must

(1) exhibit a severe orthopedic impairment, including impairments caused by congenital anomaly, disease, or other causes, that adversely affects educational performance;

(2) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make the child's educational program effective;

(3) be diagnosed by a physician as orthopedically impaired; and

(4) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as qualifying for and needing special education services.

(i) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with a visual impairment, a child must

(1) exhibit a

(A) visual impairment, not primarily perceptual in nature, resulting in measured acuity of 20/70 or poorer in the better eye with correction, or a visual field restriction of 20 degrees as determined by an optometrist or ophthalmologist, that, even with correction, adversely affects educational performance; or

(B) physical eye condition that affects visual functioning to the extent that specially designed instruction is needed;

(2) require special facilities, equipment, materials, or methods to make the child's educational program effective as determined by a teacher of children with visual impairment; and

(3) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2), that includes a certified teacher of children with visual impairment, as qualifying for and needing special education services.

(j) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with a speech or language impairment, a child must

(1) exhibit a communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects educational performance;

(2) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make the child's educational program effective;

(3) be diagnosed by a physician, a speech-language pathologist, or a speech-language therapist as speech or language impaired; and

(4) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as qualifying for and needing special education services.

(5) repealed 11/28/92.

(k) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with other health impairments, a child must

(1) exhibit limited strength, vitality, or alertness due to chronic or acute health problems such as a heart condition, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, nephritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy, lead poisoning, leukemia, or diabetes, or a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, due to attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); to be eligible, a health impairment must adversely affect that child's educational performance;

(2) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make the child's educational program effective;

(3) be diagnosed by a physician as having a health impairment described in (1) of this subsection; and

(4) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as qualifying for and needing special education services.

( l ) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with multiple disabilities, a child must

(1) exhibit two or more of the impairments set out in (b) - (i), (k), ( o ), and (p) of this section, the combination of which causes such severe educational problems that the child cannot be accommodated in a special education program that is appropriate for only one of the conditions;

(2) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make the child's educational program effective;

(3) be diagnosed as set out in (b) - (i), (k), ( o ), and (p) of this section for each condition; and

(4) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as requiring special education services that cannot be provided in a program for a single condition set out in (b) - (i), (k), ( o ), and (p) of this section.

(m) Repealed 8/22/2001.

(n) Except as provided in (q) of this section, to be eligible for special education and related services as a child with early childhood developmental delay, a child who is not less than three nor more than eight years of age must

(1) either

(A) function at least two standard deviations below the national norm, or 25 percent delayed in age equivalency, in at least one of the following five areas:

(i) cognitive development;

(ii) physical development, which includes fine and gross motor;

(iii) speech or language development, which includes expressive and receptive language, articulation, and fluency;

(iv) social or emotional development;

(v) adaptive-functioning, self-help skills; or

(B) function at least 1.7 standard deviations below the mean, or 20 percent delayed in age equivalency, in two or more of the five areas in (A)(i) - (v) of this paragraph.

(2) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as qualifying for and needing special education and related services as a child with early childhood developmental delay, as follows:

(A) the group must find that the child has learning problems that are not primarily the result of bilingualism, cultural difference, environmental disadvantage, or economic disadvantage;

(B) in evaluating the child, if it is clearly not appropriate to use a norm-referenced instrument, the group shall use another instrument, such as a criterion-referenced measure, to document the delay;

(C) the group shall base its determination of the delay and its detrimental effect on the child's daily life and educational performance on qualitative and quantitative measures, including developmental history, basic health history, observation of the child in multiple environments, and supportive evidence of how the disability adversely affects educational performance; and

(3) need special facilities, equipment or methods to make the child's educational program effective.

( o ) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with autism, a child must

(1) exhibit

(A) a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and non-verbal communication and social interaction that adversely affects educational performance; this type of developmental disability is generally evident before the child reaches three years of age; or

(B) other characteristics often associated with autism such as engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, or unusual responses to sensory experiences that adversely affect educational performance;

(2) not have educational performance adversely affected primarily by an emotional disturbance, as defined in 34 C.F.R. 300.7(b)(4), as revised as of May 11, 1999;

(3) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make that child's educational program effective;

(4) be diagnosed as autistic by a psychiatrist or other physician, or by a psychologist licensed under AS 08.86, certified under 4 AAC 12.355, or endorsed under 4 AAC 12.395; and

(5) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as qualifying for and needing special education services.

(p) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with traumatic brain injury, a child must

(1) exhibit 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 educational performance;

(2) exhibit impairments in one or more areas, including cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech caused by open or closed head injuries;

(3) not have brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or induced by birth trauma;

(4) require special facilities, equipment, or methods to make the child's educational program effective;

(5) be diagnosed by a physician as having a traumatic brain injury; and

(6) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2) as qualifying for and needing special education services.

(q) If a district does not use the criteria in (n) of this section to determine a child's eligibility for special education and related services, with regard to a child with early childhood developmental delay, the district shall apply the criteria of (b) - ( l ), ( o ), or (p) of this section.

History: Eff. 7/1/83, Register 86; am 6/9/85, Register 94; am 7/16/89, Register 111; am 11/28/92, Register 124; am 11/26/93, Register 128; am 8/22/2001, Register 159; am 9/29/2005, Register 175

Authority: AS 14.07.060

AS 14.30.274