PWCS provides special education services to students with disabilities who require specialized instruction. Use any of the listed links to obtain an overview and administrative contact information regarding each disability category.
Autism means 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 stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual response 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. A child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age three could be diagnosed as having autism if the criteria in this definition are satisfied.
Deaf-Blindness means hearing and visual impairments occurring at the same time, 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.
Developmental Delay means a disability affecting a child ages two (by September 30) through six, inclusive who is experiencing developmental delays, 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; or who has an established physical or mental condition that has a high probability of resulting in a developmental delay. The delay is not primarily a result of cultural factors, environmental or economic disadvantage, or limited English proficiency. The presence of one or more documented characteristics of the delay has an adverse effect on educational performance and makes it necessary for the student to have specially designed instruction to access and make progress in the general educational activities for this age group.
Emotional Disability 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:
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.
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 the child's educational performance.
A child may be found eligible for special education and related services as a child with intellectual disability if there is an adverse effect on the child's educational performance due to documented characteristics of intellectual disabilities which are described as a significantly sub average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period.
Specific Learning Disabilities are heterogeneous in nature, often differing markedly from one person to the next. The Regulations Governing Special Education Programs for Children with Disabilities in Virginia define the terms as follows:
According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), "specific learning disability" 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 to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Such term does not include a learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of intellectual disability, of emotional disability, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. (20 U.S.C. § 1401 (3))
Orthopedic impairment (OI) means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly, impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns which cause contractures).
Speech or Language Impairment means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, expressive or receptive language impairment, or voice impairment, that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force or by other medical conditions, including stroke, anoxia, infectious disease, aneurysm, brain tumors, and neurological insults resulting from medical or surgical treatments, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Traumatic brain injury applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as:
Traumatic brain injury does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma (34 CFR 300.8(c)(12)).
Visual Impairment, including blindness, means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a student's educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
They include: