Special Education/EIS

All states and territories must provide early intervention services to children who have, or are at risk for having, developmental delays, from birth to their third birthday.

Most CONUS locations, local school districts or health departments provide these early intervention services. The program is called different names in different areas, but it is often referred to as Part C because that is the section of the law that pertains to early intervention. The Education Directory for Children with Special Needs has a list of resources specific to each state to help you determine who you should contact. Your installation EFMP Family Support provider can also answer your questions.

If you are moving OCONUS or to a CONUS location with a DODEA school (and you live on installation), your child will receive EIS through the Defense Department’s Educational and Developmental Intervention Services, or EDIS, program.

When moving, you should hand carry copies of your child's most current individual family service plan, or IFSP, and the most current evaluation reports to your new home to ensure they are not lost.

All states and territories provide special education and related services to eligible children between the ages of 3 through 21.

When a child transfers to a different district in the same state, the new school must provide a free, appropriate public education, including comparable services, until the previously held IEP is adopted or a new one is developed and implemented. When a child transfers to another state, the receiving school must provide comparable services until an IEP review can determine if a new evaluation or IEP is appropriate.

If you are moving and your child receives special education and related services, you should hand carry all necessary school and medical documents, including the most current IEP and current evaluation reports. Hand carrying these documents ensures that they are not lost and allows the new school to begin the process as soon as you arrive.

• Education Directory for Children with Special Needs
• EFMP & Me digital tool
• Individualized Education Program & Moving
• Special Needs Parent Toolkit
• Special Needs Resources
• Exceptional Family Member Program videos

The district's Special Services Division provides services for the following special education and related services to eligible students: But not every child who struggles in school qualifies for a service unless a child's performance adversely affects his/her school performance.

• Autistic -- Autistic children have a developmental disability that covers a wide range of symptoms but mainly affects both their ability to communicate and their social skills.
• Emotional Disability --  Emotional disability is an inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; inappropriate types of behavior or feelings in normal circumstances. The main focus for these students is on behavior management as well as academics. Resource and consultative services are available for those students who need less service but indicate continued support in the management of their behavior.
• Deaf/Hard of Hearing --  Deaf means a hearing loss that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a student’s academic or functional performance. Hard of Hearing means a hearing loss, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a student’s academic or functional performance with or without amplification. These students may need amplification devices and various instructional changes to make full use of school experiences. They may need interpreters, speech therapy, and/or assistive technology.
• Specific Learning Disabled -- Learning disabled students have normal intelligence but show a specific challenge between their ability and achievement levels. They may have difficulty processing information and learning through traditional methods. These problems may result in listening comprehension, oral expression, writing, reading, or math skills that are not in line with their aged appropriate skills.
• Intellectual Disability-- Intellectually disabled children have  significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. There are three levels of intellectual disabilities; severe/profound, moderate, and mild. 
• Other Health-Impaired -- Other health-impaired students are limited in vitality, strength, or alertness because of a chronic medical problem that adversely affects their school performance. 
• Orthopedic Impairment --Orthopedic impaired students have severe orthopedic impairments that adversely affects a child's educational performance.   
• Speech/Language Impaired -- Speech and language impaired students have a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
• Traumatic Brain Injury -- Traumatic brain-injured students are students who acquired an injury to the brain that was caused by external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychological impairment or both that adversely affects a student's educational performance.   
• Visually Impaired -- Visually impaired students have limited vision or are functionally blind. The term includes both partial sight and blindness. They may need a large type or Braille for reading.
• Multiple Disability -- Multiple disabilities means concomitant impairments (such as intellectual disabilities-blindness or intellectual disabilities-orthopedic impairments), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they can not be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities does not include deaf-blindness.
• Developmental Delay --  A child with developmental delay is a child age 3-9 who has been identified before the age of 7 as experiencing significant developmental delays in one or more of the following areas: physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development: and who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.