GLOSSARY OF TERMS

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

Adverse Effect - How a student's disability negatively affects his/her ability to function successfully with educational tasks.  This must be:

1. to a marked degree;

2. not correctable through using classroom accommodations and supplementary aids and services;

3. persist over an extended period of time; and

4. require special education services.

Age of Majority - A student who has not been determined to be incompetent reaches the age of majority under State law at 18 years of age.  All rights and responsibilities under IDEA shift to him/her.  The parent must still be notified of activities, but has no right to challenge educational decisions.

Assessment - The term is broader than testing, and typically includes gathering and integrating information to determine a student's current level of emotional, behavioral, academic, and intellectual functioning, resulting in educational needs and strategies for remediation.

Assistive Technology Device - Any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability.

Assistive Technology Service - Any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device.  The term includes:

1. The evaluation of the needs of a student with a disability, including a functional evaluation of the student in the student's customary environment;

2. Purchasing, leasing, or otherwise providing for the acquisition of assistive technology devices by students with disabilities;

3. Selecting, designing, fitting, customizing, adapting, applying, maintaining, repairing, replacing assistive technology devices;

4. Coordinating and using other therapies, interventions, or services with assistive technology devices, such as those associated with existing education and rehabilitation plans and programs;

5. Training or technical assistance for a student with a disability or, if appropriate, that student's family; and training or technical assistance for professionals (including individuals providing education or rehabilitation services), employers, or other individuals who provide services to, employ, or are otherwise substantially involved in the major life functions for that student.

Behavioral Intervention - An intervention based on the methods and empirical findings of behavioral science and designed to influence a child's actions or behaviors positively.

Case Study Evaluation - See "Evaluation."

Cultural Identification - Identifying the family's general cultural factors, such as ethnicity and language spoken, which may have an impact on the design of the evaluation procedure used.

Date of Referral - The date on which written parental consent to complete an evaluation is obtained or provided.

Day - A calendar day, unless otherwise indicated as "business day" or "school day."  

• Business Day -  Monday through Friday, except for Federal and State holidays (unless holidays are specifically included in the designation of business days.

• School Day - Any day, including a partial day, during the regular school year that students are in attendance at school for instructional purposes.

Developmental Delay - Delay in physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development (may include children from three through five years of age).

Disability - Any of the following specific conditions.

    Autism - A developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, 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.

    Deaf-Blindness - 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 - 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.

    Emotional Disturbance (includes schizophrenia but does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance) - A condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over an extended period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child'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 behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;

• A general pervasive mood of anxiety or unhappiness or depression; or

• A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

       Hearing Impairment - 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.

    Mental Retardation - Significantly subaverage 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 - 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 (does not include deaf-blindness).

    Orthopedic Impairment - A severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance; 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).

    Other Health Impairment - Limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened sensitivity 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 disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, and sickle cell anemia; and

• adversely affects a child's educational performance.

    Specific Learning Disability - 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 mathematical calculations, including such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.  (The term does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.)

    Speech or Language Impairment - A communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child's educational performance.

    Traumatic Brain Injury - An acquired injured 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 - An impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance (includes both partial sight and blindness).

Domain - An aspect of a child's functioning or performance that must be considered in the course of designing an evaluation.  The domains are health, vision, hearing, social and emotional status, general intelligence, academic performance, communication status, and motor abilities.

Educational Performance - A student's academic achievement and ability to establish and maintain social relationships and to experience a sound emotional development in the school environment.

Eligible - Identified in accordance with this Part as having any of the disabilities defined in this Section and needing special education and related services.

Equipment (a programmatic definition, not intended to coincide with the definition of "equipment" given in the Program Accounting Manual) -

• Machinery, utilities,and built-in equipment and any necessary enclosures or structures to house the machinery, utilities, or equipment; and

• All other items necessary for the functioning of a particular facility as a facility for the provision of educational services, including items such as instructional equipment and necessary furniture; printed, published, and audio-visual instructional materials; telecommunications, sensory, and other technological aids and devices; and books, periodicals, documents, and other related materials.

Evaluation - A series of procedures designed to provide information about a child's suspected disability; the nature and extent of the problems which are or will be adversely affecting his/her educational development; and the type of intervention and assistance needed to alleviate these problems.

Extended School Year Services - Special education and related services that are provided to a child with a disability beyond the normal school year of the public agency in accordance with the child's IEP and at no cost to the parents of the child.

Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) - Special education and related services that:

1. are provided at public expense, under public supervision and direction, and without charge;  (At "no cost" means that all specially designed instruction is provided without charge, but does not preclude incidental fees that are normally charged to non-disabled students or their parents as a part of the general education program.)

2. meet the standards of the state;

3. include preschool, elementary school, or secondary school education in the state; and

4. are provided in conformity with an IEP.

Functional Behavioral Assessment - An assessment process for gathering information regarding the target behavior, its antecedents and consequences, controlling variables, the student's strengths, and the communicative and functional intent of the behavior, for use in developing behavioral interventions.

General Curriculum - The curriculum adopted and/or used by a local school district or by the schools within a district for nondisabled students; the content of the program, as opposed to the setting in which it is offered.

IEP Team - The group of individuals whose expertise is necessary to administer and interpret evaluation data and make an informed determination as to whether the child needs special education and related services.

1. The parent(s) of the child;

2. At least one general education teacher of the student (if the student is, or may be, participating in the general education environment);

3. At least one special education teacher or, if appropriate, at least one special education provider of the student;

4. A representative of the LEA;

5. An individual who can interpret the instructional implications of evaluation results;

6. At the discretion of the parent or the school district, other individuals who have knowledge or special expertise regarding the student, including related services personnel as appropriate; and

7. If appropriate, the student. 

Independent Educational Evaluation - An evaluation conducted by a qualified examiner who is not employed by the school district responsible for the education of the child in question. 

Individualized Education Program (IEP) - A written statement for a child with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised in a meeting in accordance with mandated procedures.

Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) - A written plan for providing the early intervention services to an eligible child and the child's family.

Interim Plan - A portion of an IEP that identifies the services that will be provided as a temporary measure, either when the child's complete IEP cannot be implemented, or when the parents and the district have only agreed to a portion of the services that will be needed, and that sets out the specific conditions and timelines that both the parents and the district have agreed to.

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) - The setting that permits a child to be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate.

Nonacademic and Extracurricular Services and Activities - Such services and activities may include but are not limited to:  athletics, counseling services, recreational activities, special interest groups, transportation, clubs sponsored by the public, health services agency, employment of student, referrals to agencies that provide assistance to individuals with disabilities, including both employment by the local school and assistance in making outside employment available.

Parent - A natural or adoptive parent of a child; a guardian but not the State if the child is a ward of the State; a person acting in the place of a parent of a child (such as a grandparent or stepparent with whom a child lives), a person who is legally responsible for a child's welfare, or a surrogate parent who has been appointed by the State.  A foster parent is a "parent" when the natural parent's authority to make educational decisions on the child's behalf has been extinguished under State law and the foster parent has an ongoing, long-term parental relationship with the child, is willing to make the educational decisions required of parents under the IDEA, and has no interest that would conflict with the interests of the child.

Participating Agency - A state or local agency, other than the local school district, that is or may be legally responsible for providing or funding services to a student who is eligible.

Personally Identifiable (with reference to information) - Including the name of the child, the child's parent, or other family member; the address of the child; a personal identifier, such as the child's Social Security number or student number; or a list of personal characteristics or other information that would make it possible to identify the child with reasonable certainty.

Qualified Personnel - Staff members or other individuals who hold the certificate, license, registration, or credential that is required for the performance of a particular task.

Qualified Bilingual Specialist - An individual who holds the prescribed qualifications.

Qualified Specialist - An individual who holds the applicable qualifications.

Referral - A formal procedure established by a school district which involves a request for an evaluation.

Related Services - Transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education, including speech-language pathology and audiology services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, including therapeutic recreation, early identification and assessment of disabilities in children, counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation and mobility services, and medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes; also including school health services, social work services in schools, and parent counseling and training.  Related services do not include those performed by licensed physicians or dentists (except for diagnostic or evaluative services or consultation to staff), registered or licensed practical nurses (except when functioning as school nurses), or other medical personnel involved in the provision of ongoing medical care.

Special Education - Specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings and instruction in physical education.

Special School - An educational setting which is established by the local school district exclusively to meet the needs of eligible children.

Specially Designed Instruction - Instruction that meets the unique needs of a child.

Supplementary Aids and Services - Aids, services, and other supports that are provided in regular education classes or other education-related settings to enable children with disabilities to be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent possible.

Transition Services - A coordinated set of activities for a student with a disability that:

• is designed within an outcome-oriented process, that promotes movement from school to post-school activities, including postsecondary education, vocational training, integrated employment (including supported employment), continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, or community participants;

• is based on the individual student's needs, taking into account the student's preferences and interests; and

• includes instruction, related services, community experiences, the development of employment and other post-school adult living objectives; and, if appropriate, acquisition of daily living skills and functional vocational evaluation.

For further information, see Title 23, Part 226 of the Illinois Administrative Code.