(1) "Special education program" means educational services carried on through special schools, special classes and special instruction;

(2) "Educable mentally handicapped pupils" means pupils of legal school age whose intellectual limitations require special classes or specialized education instruction to make them economically useful and socially adjusted;

(3) "Trainable mentally handicapped pupils" means pupils of legal school age whose mental capacity is below that of those considered educable, yet who may profit by a special type of training to the extent that they may become more nearly self-sufficient and less burdensome to others;

(4) "Emotionally handicapped pupils" means pupils of legal school age with demonstrably adequate intellectual potential, who because of emotional, motivational, or social disturbance require special classes or specialized education instruction suited to their needs;

(5) "Hearing handicapped pupils" means pupils of age four or older who are certified by a licensed specialist that their hearing deficit requires special classes or specialized education instruction suited to their needs;

(6) "Orthopedically handicapped pupils" means pupils of legal school age who have an impairment which interferes with the normal functions of the bones, joints, or muscles to such an extent and degree as to require the school to provide special facilities and instructional programs;

(7) "Visually handicapped pupils" means pupils of age four or older who are blind or possess a severe visual disability as defined in § 43-25-20;

(8) "Learning disabilities pupils" means pupils with special learning disabilities who exhibit a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or written language. These may be manifested in disorders of listening, thinking, talking, reading, writing, spelling or arithmetic. They include conditions which have been referred to as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, developmental aphasia, etc. They do not include learning problems which are due primarily to visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, to intellectual disability, emotional disturbances or to environmental disadvantage;

(9) "Physically handicapped children" means children of sound mind and of legal school age who suffer from any disability making it impracticable or impossible for them to benefit from or participate in the normal classroom program of the public schools.

(10) "Caseload" means membership of handicapped pupils receiving special instruction.

(11) "Pupils with autism" means pupils with a severe and chronic disorder that affects communication and behavior and which is manifested during early development by a characteristic pattern of social, communication, and learning behaviors. Autism is a behaviorally defined syndrome; the essential features of which include disturbances of: developmental rates or sequences; response to sensory stimuli; speech, language, and communication; and capacities to relate to people, objects, and events.