Q - I have heard that, to be eligible for special education in Washington, a student must fall one standard deviation below the mean in two developmental areas or two standard deviations in one developmental area.  Does this standard violate federal law?

A - That is the standard only for students aged 3 to 8 who are qualifying for special education based on "developmental delay," and it is not necessary to meet this standard if the student has some other qualifying disability adversely affecting the student's education.  For example, autism can be a qualifying disability if it has adverse educational impact, regardless of whether the student falls two deviations below average test scores.  The Washington regulation which defines eligibility, WAC 392-172A-01035(1)(a), says:

"Child with a disability or as used in this chapter, a student eligible for special education means a student who has been evaluated and determined to need special education because of having a disability in one of the following eligibility categories: Intellectual disability, a hearing impairment (including deafness), a speech or language impairment, a visual impairment (including blindness), an emotional behavioral disability, an orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, an other health impairment, a specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, multiple disabilities, or for students, three through eight, a developmental delay and who, because of the disability and adverse educational impact, has unique needs that cannot be addressed exclusively through education in general education classes with or without individual accommodations, and needs special education and related services."

The "two standard deviations" criterion which you have heard about is part of the state's definition of "developmental delay," stated in WAC 392-172A-01035(2)(d)(i) as: "a student three through eight who is experiencing developmental delays that adversely affect the student's educational performance in one or more of the following areas: Physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development or adaptive development and who demonstrates a delay on a standardized norm referenced test, with a test-retest or split-half reliability of .80 that is at least: (A) Two standard deviations below the mean in one or more of the five developmental areas; OR (B) One and one-half standard deviations below the mean in two or more of the five developmental areas."

Procedural Safeguards Handout 11 4 13 by Katherine George.  Ms. George is a special education attorney and a member of the WAAA Board of Directors.