This article is intended to help Texas parents understand the types of disabilities that may make a child eligible for special education services in a Texas public school district, which may impact eligibility for the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) Program. These criteria will also be used to prioritize applicable children approved for TEFA.
General definitions for eligible disabilities under TEFA are noted in this article. However, to be prioritized as a child with a disability, the child must have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) from a Texas public school district or from out-of-state, a full individual and initial evaluation (FIIE), or the parent must provide a TEFA Disability Certification Form for the child. A link to the Disability Certification Form required for TEFA is available for download here. Please take this form to your child’s practitioner for completion and signature, and submit it with your online application.
Additional funding is only available to children who have or have had an IEP on file with the Texas Education Agency for the 2023–2024 school year, 2024–2025 school year, 2026–2027 school year, or the upcoming school year, and whose household income is at or below 500% of the federal poverty level. The other documents mentioned above will be considered only when prioritizing who will receive a TEFA account. A TEFA Disability Certification form or FIIE does not meet the requirements for additional account funding.
The following disabilities generally qualify a child to participate in a school district's special education program:
Hearing impairment
- General Definition: A hearing impairment, either permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects the child's educational performance or is so severe that a child cannot process linguistic information through hearing, even with amplification, and that adversely affects the child’s educational performance.
Autism
- General Definition: A developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before the age of three, that adversely affects the child's educational performance. This category can include repetitive behaviors, unusual responses to sensory input, and resistance to changes in routine.
Deaf-blindness
- General Definition: The combination of hearing and visual impairments that creates severe communication, developmental, and educational needs and adversely affects the child's educational performance. A child with deaf-blindness cannot be accommodated in special education programs designed for only visual or only hearing impairment.
Developmental delay
- General Definition: A child between the ages of 3-9 who is evaluated by a licensed practitioner for at least one disability that adversely affects the child’s educational performance and whose evaluation data indicates a need for special education and related services and shows evidence of, but does not clearly confirm, the presence of the suspected disability due to the child's young age. Developmental delay may occur in physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development, and adversely affects the child’s educational performance.
Emotional disability
- General Definition: An emotional disturbance with specific characteristics over a long period that adversely affects the child's educational performance, such as an inability to learn not explained by other factors, difficulty building relationships, inappropriate behavior or feelings, pervasive unhappiness or depression, or fears or physical symptoms related to school problems. The condition includes schizophrenia but does not include social maladjustment alone.
Intellectual disability
- General Definition: Significantly below-average intellectual functioning with deficits in adaptive behavior that appear during the developmental period and adversely affect the child’s educational performance.
Multiple disabilities
- General Definition: Two or more disabilities (not deaf-blindness) that adversely affect the child’s educational performance and cause severe educational needs requiring a special education program for more than one impairment. Such disabilities must be expected to continue indefinitely and severely impair performance in two or more of the following areas: psychomotor skills, self-care skills, communication, social and emotional development, or cognition.
Orthopedic impairment
- General Definition: A severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects the child's education. This includes impairments from birth anomalies, diseases like bone tuberculosis, or other causes such as cerebral palsy or amputations.
Other health impairment
- General Definition: Limited strength, vitality, or alertness due to chronic or acute health problems that adversely affect the child’s educational performance. This can include conditions such as ADD or ADHD, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, or Tourette's Disorder.
Specific learning disability
- General Definition: A disorder involving psychological processes for understanding or using language, which can lead to difficulties in listening, thinking, speaking, reading, writing, spelling, or math, and adversely affects the child’s educational performance. Examples include dyslexia and dysgraphia.
Speech or language impairment
- General Definition: A communication disorder, like stuttering, articulation issues, language impairment, or voice impairment, that adversely affects the child's educational performance. This may involve producing sounds, speech fluency, or understanding/using language.
Traumatic brain injury
- General Definition: An acquired brain injury from an external physical force causing functional or psychosocial impairment that adversely affects the child's educational performance. It excludes congenital, degenerative, or birth-trauma-related brain injuries.
Visual impairment
- General Definition: A vision impairment that, even with correction, adversely affects the child's educational performance. This includes both partial sight and blindness.