Referral for Possible Special Education Services

Medina Valley ISD provides special education and related services to eligible students ages 3 through 21 who reside within the District. To be eligible for the District’s program of special education and related services, a student must (a) have one or more of the thirteen qualifying disabilities listed below and (b) need special education and related services—Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)—because of the disability.  A free appropriate public education is also available to children with visual impairments or who are deaf or hard of hearing residing within the District from birth through age 21.

 

Subject to the age limitations specified above, students may be eligible for special education and related services under these categories of disability specified under state and federal law: autism, deaf-blindness, auditory impairment, emotional disturbance, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, speech impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment, and “noncategorical early childhood.”

 

Children between the ages of 3-5 who are evaluated as having an intellectual disability, an emotional disturbance, a specific learning disability or autism may be described as “noncategorical early childhood” for the purposes of special education eligibility.

 

Consideration of eligibility for special education and related services begins with a referral for a special education evaluation—a full individual and initial evaluation.