Sec. APPENDIX C-NOTICE OF INTERPRETATION AUTHORITY: 20 U.S.C. 1411-1420, unless otherwise noted. SOURCE: 42 FR 42476, Aug. 23, 1977, unless otherwise noted. Redesignated at 45 FR 77368, Nov. 21, 1980. Subpart A-General PURPOSE, APPLICABILITY, AND GENERAL PROVISIONS REGULATIONS § 300.1 Purpose. The purpose of this part is: (a) To insure that all handicapped children have available to them a free appropriate public education which includes special education and related services to meet their unique needs, (b) To insure that the rights of handicapped children and their parents are protected, (c) To assist States and localities to provide for the education of all handicapped children, and (d) To assess and insure the effectiveness of efforts to educate those children. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1401 Note) § 300.2 Applicability to State, local, and private agencies. (a) States. This part applies to each State which receives payments under Part B of the Education of the Handicapped Act. (b) Public agencies within the State. The annual program plan is submitted by the State educational agency on behalf of the State as a whole. Therefore, the provisions of this part apply to all political subdivisions of the State that are involved in the education of handicapped children. These would include: (1) The State educational agency, (2) local educational agencies and intermediate educational units, (3) other State agencies and schools (such as Departments of Mental Health and Welfare and State schools for the deaf or blind), and (4) State correctional facilities. (c) Private schools and facilities. Each public agency in the State is responsible for insuring that the rights and protections under this part are given to children referred to or placed in private schools and facilities by that public agency. (See §§ 300.400-300.403) (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1412(1), (6); 1413(a); 1413(a)(4)(B)) Comment. The requirements of this part are binding on each public agency that has direct or delegated authority to provide special education and related services in a State that receives funds under Part B of the Act, regardless of whether that agency is receiving funds under Part B. § 300.3 Regulations that apply to assistance to States for education of handicapped children. (a) Regulations. The following regulations apply to this program of Assistance to States for Education of Handicapped Children. (1) The Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR Part 76 (StateAdministered Programs) and Part 77 (Definitions). (2) The regulations in this Part 300. (b) How to use regulations; how to apply for funds. The "Introduction to Regulations of the Department" at the beginning of EDGAR includes general information to assist in (1) Using regulations that apply to Department programs; and (2) Applying for assistance under a Department program. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e-3(a)(1)) DEFINITIONS Comment. Definitions of terms that are used throughout these regulations are inIcluded in this subpart. Other terms are defined in the specific subparts in which they are used. Below is a list of those terms and the specific sections and subparts in which they are defined: Consent (§ 300.500 of Subpart E) Evaluation (§ 300.500 of Subpart E) educational evaluation (§ 300.503 of Subpart E) Individualized education program (§ 300.340 of Subpart C) Participating agency (§ 300.560 of Subpart E) § 300.4 Free appropriate public education. As used in this part, the term "free appropriate public education" means special education and related services which: (a) Are provided at public expense, under public supervision and direction, and without charge. (b) Meet the standards of the State educational agency, including the requirements of this part, (c) Include preschool, elementary school, or secondary school education in the State involved, and (d) Are provided in conformity with an individualized education program which meets the requirements under §§ 300.340-300.349 of Subpart C. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1401(18)) § 300.5 Handicapped children. (a) As used in this part, the term "handicapped children" means those children evaluated in accordance with §§ 300.530-300.534 as being mentally retarded, hard of hearing, deaf, speech impaired, visually handicapped, seriously emotionally disturbed, orthopedically impaired, other health impaired, deaf-blind, multi-handicapped, or as having specific learning disabilities, who because of those impairments need special education and related services. (b) The terms used in this definition are defined as follows: (1) "Deaf" means a hearing impairment which is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, which adversely affects educational performance. (2) "Deaf-blind" means concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational problems that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for deaf or blind children. (3) "Hard of Hearing" means a hearing impairment, whether permanent or fluctuating, which adversely affects a child's educational performance but which is not included under the definition of "deaf" in this section. (4) "Mentally retarded" means significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, which adversely affects a child's educational performance. (5) "Multihandicapped" means concomitant impairments (such as mentally retarded-blind, mentally retarded-orthopedically impaired, etc.), the combination of which causes such severe educational problems that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include deaf-blind children. "Orthopedically (6) impaired" means a severe orthopedic impairment which adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term 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 which cause contractures). (7) "Other health impaired" means (i) having an autistic condition which is manifested by severe communication and other developmental and educational problems; or (ii) having limited strength, vitality or alertness, due to chronic or acute health problems such as a heart condition, tuberculosis, rhematic fever, nephritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy, lead poisoning, leukemia, or diabetes, which adversely affects a child's educational performance. (8) "Seriously emotionally turbed" is defined as follows: dis (i) The term means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree, which adversely affects educational performance: (A) An inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; (B) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; (C) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; (D) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or (E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. (ii) The term includes children who are schizophrenic. The term does not include children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they are seriously emotionally disturbed. (9) "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, which 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 handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain disfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include children who have learning problems which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, of mental retardation of emotional disturbance or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. (10) "Speech impaired" means a communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, which adversely affects a child's educational performance. (11) "Visually handicapped" means a visual impairment which, even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes both partially seeing and blind children. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1401(1), (15)) [42 FR 42476, Aug. 23, 1977, as amended at 42 FR 65083, Dec. 29, 1977. Redesignated at 45 FR 77368, Nov. 21, 1980, and further amended at 46 FR 3866, Jan. 16, 1981] § 300.7 Intermediate educational unit. As used in this part, the term "intermediate educational unit" means any public authority, other than a local educational agency, which: (a) Is under the general supervision of a State educational agency; (b) Is established by State law for the purpose of providing free public education on a regional basis; and (c) Provides special education and related services to handicapped children within that State. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1401 (22)) § 300.8 Local educational agency. (a) [Reserved] (b) For the purposes of this part, the term "local educational agency" also includes intermediate educational units. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1401 (8)) [42 FR 42476, Aug. 23, 1977, as amended at 45 FR 22531, Apr. 3, 1980. Redesignated at 45 FR 77368, Nov. 21, 1980] § 300.9 Native language. As used in this part, the term "native language" has the meaning given that term by section 703(a)(2) of the Bilingual Education Act, which provides as follows: The term "native language", when used with reference to a person of limited English-speaking ability, means the language normally used by that person, or in the case of a child, the language normally used by the parents of the child. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 880b-1(a)(2); 1401(21)) Comment. Section 602(21) of the Education of the Handicapped Act states that the term "native language" has the same meaning as the definition from the Bilingual Education Act. (The term is used in the prior notice and evaluation sections under § 300.505(b)(2) and § 300.532(a)(1) of Subpart E.) In using the term, the Act does not prevent the following means of communication: As used in this part, the term "parent" means a parent, a guardian, a person acting as a parent of a child, or a surrogate parent who has been appointed in accordance with § 300.514. The term does not include the State if the child is a ward of the State. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1415) Comment. The term "parent" is defined to include persons acting in the place of a parent, such as a grandmother or stepparent with whom a child lives, as well as persons who are legally responsible for a child's welfare. § 300.11 Public agency. As used in this part, the term "public agency" includes the State educational agency, local educational agencies, intermediate educational units, and any other political subdivision of the State which are responsible for providing education to handicapped children. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1412(2)(B); 1412(6); 1413(a)) § 300.12 Qualified. As used in this part, the term "qualified" means that a person has met State educational agency approved or recognized certification, licensing, registration, or other comparable requirements which apply to the area in which he or she is providing special education or related services. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1417(b)) § 300.13 Related services. (a) As used in this part, the term "related services" means transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are required to assist a handicapped child to benefit from special education, and includes speech pathology and audiology, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, early identification and assessment of disabilities in children, counseling services, and medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes. The term also includes school health services, social work services in schools, and parent counseling and training. (b) The terms used in this definition are defined as follows: (1) "Audiology" includes: (i) Identification of children with hearing loss; (ii) Determination of the range, nature, and degree of hearing loss, including referral for medical or other professional attention for the habilitation of hearing; (iii) Provision of habilitative activities, such as language habilitation, auditory training, speech reading (lipreading), hearing evaluation, and speech conservation; (iv) Creation and administration of programs for prevention of hearing loss; (v) Counseling and guidance of pupils, parents, and teachers regarding hearing loss; and (vi) Determination of the child's need for group and individual amplification, selecting and fitting an appropriate aid, and evaluating the effectiveness of amplification. means (2) "Counseling services" services provided by qualified social workers, psychologists, guidance counselors, or other qualified personnel. (3) "Early identification" means the implementation of a formal plan for identifying a disability as early as possible in a child's life. (4) "Medical services" means services provided by a licensed physician to determine a child's medically related handicapping condition which results in the child's need for special education and related services. (5) "Occupational therapy" includes: (i) Improving, developing or restoring functions impaired or lost through illness, injury, or deprivation; (ii) Improving ability to perform tasks for independent functioning when functions are impaired or lost; and |