Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 15 > Chapter 7 > Article 4 - Special Education for Exceptional Children

• Accommodation school: means either:

  (a) A school that is operated through the county board of supervisors and the county school superintendent and that the county school superintendent administers to serve a military reservation or territory that is not included within the boundaries of a school district. See Arizona Laws 15-101

• Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Adult: means a person who has attained eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Autism: means a developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction and that adversely affects educational performance. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Average daily membership: means the total enrollment of fractional students and full-time students, minus withdrawals, of each school day through the first one hundred days or two hundred days in session, as applicable, for the current year. See Arizona Laws 15-901
• Base: means the revenue level per student count specified by the legislature. See Arizona Laws 15-901
• Charter school: means a public school established by contract with the state board of education, the state board for charter schools, a university under the jurisdiction of the Arizona board of regents, a community college district or a group of community college districts pursuant to article 8 of this chapter to provide learning that will improve pupil achievement. See Arizona Laws 15-101
• Child with a disability: means a child with a disability as defined in section 15-761. See Arizona Laws 15-101
• Common school district: means a political subdivision of this state offering instruction to students in programs for preschool children with disabilities and kindergarten programs and either:

  (a) Grades one through eight. See Arizona Laws 15-901

• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Current year: means the fiscal year in which a school district is operating. See Arizona Laws 15-901
• Developmental delay: means performance by a child who is at least three years of age but under ten years of age on a norm-referenced test that measures at least one and one-half, but not more than three, standard deviations below the mean for children of the same chronological age in two or more of the following areas:

  (a) Cognitive development. See Arizona Laws 15-761

• Due process hearing: means a fair and impartial administrative hearing conducted by the state educational agency by an impartial administrative law judge in accordance with federal and state law. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Emotional disability: means a condition:

  (a) In which a child exhibits one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects the child's performance in the educational environment:

  (i) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory or health factors. See Arizona Laws 15-761

• enrollment: means that a pupil is currently registered in the school district. See Arizona Laws 15-901
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fiscal year: means the year beginning July 1 and ending June 30. See Arizona Laws 15-101
• Governing board: means a body organized for the government and management of the schools within a school district or a county school superintendent in the conduct of an accommodation school. See Arizona Laws 15-101
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Hearing impairment: means a loss of hearing acuity, as determined by evaluation pursuant to section 15-766, that interferes with the child's performance in the educational environment and requires the provision of special education and related services. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Home school district: means the school district or charter school that the child last attended or, if the child has not previously attended a public school in this state, the school district in which the person resides who has legal custody of the child, as provided in section 15-824, subsection B. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Impartial administrative law judge: means an administrative law judge of the office of administrative hearings who is knowledgeable in the laws governing special education and administrative hearings. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Individualized education program: means a written statement, as defined in 20 United States Code §§ 1401 and 1412, for providing special education and related services to a child with a disability. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Individualized education program team: means a team whose task is to develop an appropriate educational program for the child and has the same meaning prescribed in 20 United States Code § 1414. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Intellectual disability: means a significant impairment of general intellectual functioning that exists concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and that adversely affects the child's performance in the educational environment. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Mild intellectual disability: means performance on standard measures of intellectual and adaptive behavior between two and three standard deviations below the mean for children of the same age. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Moderate intellectual disability: means performance on standard measures of intellectual and adaptive behavior between three and four standard deviations below the mean for children of the same age. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Multiple disabilities: means learning and developmental problems resulting from multiple disabilities as determined by evaluation pursuant to section 15-766 that cannot be provided for adequately in a program designed to meet the needs of children with less complex disabilities. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Multiple disabilities with severe sensory impairment: means multiple disabilities that include at least one of the following:

  (a) Severe visual impairment or severe hearing impairment in combination with another severe disability. See Arizona Laws 15-761

• Orthopedic impairment: means one or more severe orthopedic impairments and includes those that are caused by congenital anomaly, disease and other causes, such as amputation or cerebral palsy, and that adversely affect a child's performance in the educational environment. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Other health impairments: means limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, due to chronic or acute health problems that adversely affect a pupil's educational performance. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Out-of-home care: means the placement of a child with a disability outside of the home environment and includes twenty-four-hour residential care, group care or foster care on either a full-time or part-time basis. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Parent: means :

  (a) Either a natural or adoptive parent of a child. See Arizona Laws 15-761

• person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, association or public or private organization of any kind. See Arizona Laws 15-101
• Preschool child: means a child who is at least three years of age but who has not reached the required age for kindergarten, subject to section 15-771, subsection G. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Preschool severe delay: means performance by a preschool child on a norm-referenced test that measures more than three standard deviations below the mean for children of the same chronological age in one or more of the following areas:

  (a) Cognitive development. See Arizona Laws 15-761

• Prior written notice: means written prior notice that a public educational agency is required to send to parents whenever the public educational agency proposes or refuses to initiate or change the identification, evaluation or educational placement of a child with a disability or the provision of a free appropriate public education. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Private school: means a nonpublic institution where instruction is imparted. See Arizona Laws 15-101
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Process: means a citation, writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Public educational agency: means a school district, a charter school, an accommodation school, a state-supported institution or any other political subdivision of this state that is responsible for providing education to children with disabilities. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• public school: means any public institution established for the purposes of offering instruction to pupils in programs for preschool children with disabilities, kindergarten programs or any combination of elementary grades or secondary grades one through twelve. See Arizona Laws 15-101
• Related services: means those supportive services, as defined in 20 United States Code § 1401, that are required to assist a child with a disability who is eligible to receive special education services in order for the child to benefit from special education. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Residential special education placement: means placing a child with a disability in a public or private residential program, as provided in section 15-765, subsection G, in order to provide necessary special education and related services as specified in the child's individualized education program. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• School district: means a political subdivision of this state with geographic boundaries organized for the purpose of the administration, support and maintenance of the public schools or an accommodation school. See Arizona Laws 15-101
• Special education: means specially designed instruction that meets the unique needs of a child with a disability and that is provided without cost to the parents of the child. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Specially designed instruction: means adapting the content, methodology or delivery of instruction to address the unique needs of a child with a disability and to ensure that child's access to the general curriculum as identified in the academic standards adopted by the state board of education. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• State educational agency: means the department of education. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• Subject: means a division or field of organized knowledge, such as English or mathematics, or a selection from an organized body of knowledge for a course or teaching unit, such as the English novel or elementary algebra. See Arizona Laws 15-101
• Surrogate parent: means a person who has been appointed by the court or by the department of education pursuant to Section 15-763. See Arizona Laws 15-761
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215