Who is eligible for special education?
IDEA covers specific disabilities that have an impact on a child’s ability to learn. The child must have an educationally handicapping condition: • Children age 3 through age 5 must have one or more developmental delays in cognitive, communication, social, emotional or adaptive development. • Preschool special education in Ohio information is available from the Ohio Department of Education. • School aged children age 5 through age 21 must have one of the following: autism, cognitive disability (mental retardation), deaf-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment including blindness, other health impairment. • Whose IDEA is This: A Resouce Guide for Parents, published by the Ohio Department of Education, provides an appendix of commonly used terms and definitions of disability conditions at the end of the publication. F
