The Shadow
LOW MOOR — Alleghany Highlands Public Schools Special Education Advisory
Committees, continue to search for unserved or inadequately served students with
disabilities. The Advisory Committees meet four to five times yearly and advise the
school boards and superintendents of service concerns. If you would like to contact a
member of the Advisory Committee, please call the Alleghany Highlands School Board
office at 863-1809.
We welcome parents of students with disabilities and other interested citizens. Students
with disabilities are entitled to a free public education which is appropriate to their needs.
Although testing by the school system is available for children below the age of two,
direct services are enlisted from other providers at this time. Primary service providers
for the 0-2 population with disabilities are those of Project Impact which is under the
jurisdiction of Mental Retardation Services of the Community Services Board.
Not all students with disabilities need special education and related services. Special
education testing and programming are necessary when the disability interferes with
learning. Listed are types of disabling conditions which may unfavorably affect learning.
Intellectual Disability
Significantly sub average intellectual functioning, defined in regulation as two or more
standard deviations below the mean on a standardized measure of intellectual
functioning, existing concurrently with significantly impaired adaptive skills.
Significantly impaired adaptive skill is defined in regulation as two or more standard
deviations below the mean on composite scores.
Multiple Disabilities
“Multiple disabilities” means simultaneous impairments (such as intellectual disability
with blindness, intellectual disability with orthopedic impairment), the combination of
which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special
education programs solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include deaf-
blindness.
Orthopedic Impairment
“Orthopedic impairment” 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, etc.), and
impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns
that cause contractures).
Visual Impairment
“Visual impairment” means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely
affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and
blindness.
Hearing Impairment
“Hearing impairment” means an impairment in hearing in one or both ears, with or
without amplification, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s
educational performance but that is not included under the definition of “deafness”.
Specific Learning Disability
“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, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain
injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia..
Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the
result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; of intellectual disabilities; of emotional
disabilities; of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
Dyslexia is distinguished from other learning disabilities due to its weakness occurring at
the phonological level. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in
origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and
by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in
the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other
cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary
consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced readying
experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.
Emotional Disability
“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;
1. An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors;
2. An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and
teachers;
3. Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;
4. A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or
5. A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school
problems.
Emotional disability includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to socially
maladjusted children, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disability as
defined in this section.
Speech or Language Impairment
“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.
Other Health Impairments
“Other health impairments” means having limited strength, and vitality, including a
heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with
respect to the educational environment, that is due to chronic or acute health problems
such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,
diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis,
rheumatic fever, and sickle cell anemia and Tourette syndrome that adversely affects a
child’s educational performance.
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.
Deaf-blindness
“Deaf-blindness” means simultaneous hearing and visual impairments, 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.
Autism
“Autism” means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal
communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three that 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. Autism 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 identified as having autism if the
criteria in this definition are satisfied.
Traumatic Brain Injury
“Traumatic brain injury” means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external
physical force, 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 cognition, language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking,
judgment, problem-solving, sensory, perceptual and motor abilities, psychosocial
behavior, physical functions, information processing, and speech. Traumatic brain injury
does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries
induced by birth trauma.
Developmental Delay
“Developmental delay” means a disability affecting a child age two by September 30
through six, inclusive:
1: (i) 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 (ii) who has an established physical or mental condition that
has a high probability of resulting in developmental delay.
2. The delay(s) is not primarily a result of cultural factors, environmental or economic
disadvantages, or limited English proficiency; and
3. The presence of one or more documented characteristics of the delay has an adverse
affect on educational performance and makes it necessary for the student to have
specially designed instruction to access and make progress in the general education
activities for this age group.
Visual Impairment including Blindness
“Visual impairment including blindness” means an impairment in vision that, even with
correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both
partial sight and blindness.
Related Services
“Related services” means transportation, and such developmental, corrective, and other
supportive services as are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from
special education and includes speech-language, pathology, and audiology services;
interpreting and transliterating, psychological services, physical and occupational
therapy, recreation, including therapeutic recreation; early identification and assessment
of disabilities in children; counseling services, including rehabilitation and psychological
counseling; orientation and mobility services; medical services for diagnostic or
evaluation purposes; school health services; social work services in schools; and parent
counseling and training.
Occupational Therapy
“Occupational therapy” means services provided by a qualified occupational therapist or
services provided under the direction of supervision of a qualified occupational therapist
and includes:
1) Improving developing, or restoring functions impaired or lost through illness, injury,
or deprivation; 2) Improving the ability to perform tasks for independent functioning
when functions are impaired or lost; and 3) Preventing, through early intervention, initial
or further impairment or loss of function.
Physical Therapy
“Physical therapy” means services provided by a qualified physical therapist upon
medical referral and direction.
Psychological Counseling
Counseling performed by a qualified psychologist, licensed therapist, or school guidance
counselor in order to enhance education.
Available in the Alleghany Highlands School System are special education programs and
related services to provide appropriate educational plans to students with the previously
listed disabling conditions. All services are provided at public expense. Parents,
guardians, or other interested citizens are encouraged to refer for screening and/or testing
any child from birth through 21 who they suspect of having a disability and in need of
special education and related services. These services are also available to children who
are district residents who are currently in private schools. The importance of early
intervention in regard to a student with disabilities cannot be overstated. Early warning
signs of possible disabilities include the following examples:
1. Delayed in the development of speech and or language which are significantly greater
than normal.
2. Delays in gross motor function. Apparent inability to turn over, sit erectly, pull-up,
crawl and walk at 6 months, 18 months respectively.
3. Delays in fine motor control. Extreme difficulty with puzzle pieces, cutting, zipping,
snapping, following forms and lines at age 3, 4, 5, and 6.
4. Inappropriate behavior that greatly exceeds normal amounts of misbehavior for age or
pervasive sadness, difficulty with authority figures, with peers and other relationships
that is evidenced over a long period of time.
5. At school age. Difficulties with developmental academic tasks that adversely affect
the ability to read, write, communicate and perform arithmetic calculations.
6. Sensory indicators include Apparent failure to detect certain sounds or to see with
desired perception. Information will be provided in the person’s native language or
primary mode of ommunication as appropriate. Please contact the special education
office if information is needed in a language other than English.
Referrals may be made to the child’s school if applicable or to the Special Education
Office of the Alleghany Highlands Public School System. The number to call for
referrals is 863-1809 or e-mail Dr. Jason Conaway at jason.conaway@ahps.k12.va.us .
