The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines students with disabilities as those students, ages three (3) to twenty-one (21), who have been properly evaluated as having Intellectual Disability, Hearing Impairments and Deafness, Speech or Language Impairments, Visual Impairments, including Blindness, Emotional Disturbance, Orthopedic Impairments, Autism, Traumatic Brain Injury, Other Health Impairments, a Specific Learning Disability, Deaf Blindness, or Multiple Disabilities and, who because of that disability, require special education and related services. As allowed under 34 CFR 300.8 implementing IDEA, the State of Missouri also defines a child with a disability to include students ages three (3) through five (5) who have been properly identified as a young child with a developmental delay.

No student may be determined to be eligible if the determinant factor for that eligibility determination is lack of appropriate instruction in reading, including the essential components of comprehensive literacy (as defined in section 2221(b)(1) of the ESEA), or lack of appropriate instruction in math, or limited English proficiency 34 CFR 300.306(b)(1).

Several conditions may be diagnosed by other professionals such as physicians, psychologists, etc. that are not specified by IDEA. These may include such conditions as Tourette syndrome, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, leukemia, dyslexia, central auditory processing disorder, etc. Students who present significant learning problems by virtue of the condition may demonstrate eligibility for special education under one or more of the disabilities identified above.

Special education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and instruction in physical education. The term includes each of the following, if the services otherwise meet the definition of specially designed instruction: A. speech-language pathology services or any other related service if the service is considered special education rather than a related service under State standards; B. travel training; and, C. vocational education.