Special education means specially designed individualized or group instruction or special services or programs, and special transportation, provided at no cost to the parent, to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities.
Such instruction includes but is not limited to that conducted in classrooms, homes, hospitals, institutions and in other settings.
In addition, such instruction may include specially designed instruction in physical education, including adapted physical education.
The individual needs of a student shall be determined by a committee on special education upon consideration of the present levels of performance and expected learning outcomes of the student. Such individual-need determinations shall provide the basis for written annual goals, direction for the provision of appropriate educational programs and services and development of an individualized education program for the student. The areas to be considered shall include:
1. Academic Achievement, functional performance and learning characteristics which shall mean the levels of knowledge and development in subject and skill areas, including activities of daily living, level of intellectual functioning, adaptive behavior, expected rate of progress in acquiring skills and information, and learning styles.
2. Social Development, means the degree and quality of the student's relationships with peers and adults, feelings about self, and social adjustment to school and community environments.
3. Physical Development, means the degree or quality of the student's motor and sensory development, health, vitality, and physical skills or limitations which pertain to the learning process.
4. Management Needs, means the nature of and degree to which environmental modifications and human or material resources are required to enable the student to benefit from instruction. Management needs shall be determined in accordance with the factors identified in each of the three areas described above.
Group Instruction means instruction of students grouped together according to similarity of individual needs for the purpose of special education. The curriculum and instruction provided to such groups shall be consistent with the individual needs of each student in the group, and the instruction required to meet the individual needs of any one student in one group shall not consistently detract from the instruction provided other students in the group.
Specially-designed instruction means adapting, as appropriate to the needs of an eligible student the content, methodology, or delivery of instruction to address the unique needs that result from the student's disability; and to ensure access of the student to the general curriculum, so that he or she can meet the educational standards that apply to all students.