What is Special Education?
Special education is specially designed instruction and related services that enable a student with a disability to access and benefit from their program of education. Special education addresses the individual needs of the child that arise from a disability.
Students qualify for special education by meeting specific eligibility criteria, as defined by the Minnesota Department of Education. Students are evaluated by a team of professionals to determine if they qualify in one or more of the following disability areas:
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH)
- Deaf-Blindness (DB)
- Developmental Cognitive Disability (DCD)
- Developmental Delay (DD)
- Emotional/Behavioral Disorders (EBD)
- Other Health Disabilities (OHD)
- Physically Impaired (PI)
- Severely Multiply Impaired (SMI)
- Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
- Speech or Language Impairments (S/L)
- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
- Visually Impaired (VI)
Related Services
- Adaptive equipment
- Audiology
- Occupational Therapy
- Orientation and mobility services
- Physical therapy
- Psychological services
- School Social Work services
- Special Transportation
- Speech/Language pathology
- Developmental adapted physical education