Princeton Independent School District is ready, willing and able to identify and serve all children with disabilities residing within its jurisdiction who are in need of special education and related services.

Princeton Independent School District is responsible for identifying, locating, and evaluating children from birth through age 21, with known or suspected disabilities who reside in and/or attend school within the school district’s boundaries to determine whether a need for special education and related services exists. Child Find includes children who reside in group or nursing homes and/or who attend private or homeschools within the district’s boundaries regardless of place of residence.

Any one in the community who is concerned with the welfare of a child may participate in the Child Find process. Child Find accepts referrals on children who may have a disability. Parent involvement and agreement is obtained prior to any further action. Information is confidential and the privacy of the child and parents is protected. Should an assessment be required, it is provided at no cost to the parent.

If you suspect or know of a child who has one or more of the following disabilities, please contact our office at 469-952-5406.

Speech and/or Language Impairment

Speech or Language Impairment is a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance

Autism

Autism is a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, which adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences.

Specific Learning Disability

Specific Learning Disabilities is a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, and development aphasia.

Intellectual Disability

Intellectual Disability is significantly sub average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Emotional Disturbance

Emotional Disturbance is a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s education performance.

• 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/or teachers.
• Inappropriate type of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
• A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
• A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.
• The term includes schizophrenia. It does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have a serious emotional disturbance.

Orthopedic Impairment

Orthopedic Impairment is a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by a congenital anomaly, impairments caused by disease and impairments from other causes such as cerebral palsy and amputations.

Other Health Impairment

Other Health Impairment is having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that

• Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, and sickle cell anemia, and
• Adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Visual Impairment (including blindness)

Visual Impairment including blindness means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing 

Deafness means a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a child's educational performance.

Hearing Impairment means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctiuating, that adversely affects a child's educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness in 34 CFR §300.8 Child with a disability.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury is an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Traumatic brain injury applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition, language, memory, attention, abstract thinking judgment, problem-solving, sensory, perceptual and motor abilities, psychosocial behavior, physical functions, information processing, and speech. traumatic brain injury does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.

Multiple Disabilities

Multiple Disabilities is concomitant impairments (such as intellectual disability-blindness, intellectual disability-orthopedic impairment, etc), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities does not include deaf-blindness.

A student with multiple disabilities is one who has a combination of disabilities included in this section and who meets all of the following conditions:

1. The student’s disability is expected to continue indefinitely, and
2. The disabilities severely impair performance in two or more of the following areas:

1. Psycho-motor skills,
2. Self-care skills,
3. Communication,
4. Social and emotional development, or
5. Cognition

Birth to Age 3

ECI of LifePath Systems
1515 Heritage Drive
McKinney, TX 75069
Toll Free 1-877-789-8889
Tel: 972-562-0331
Fax: 972-359-1119

Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) helps babies and toddlers, ages birth to 3, with disabilities or delays in their development. ECI supports families through education and family services to help their children reach their potential.

Families and staff work as a team to develop a plan outlining services for the child and family. Most services are provided in the home or community to help children learn the basic skills that are a part of their family’s daily routines.

Services for children could include:

• screenings and assessments, including hearing and vision
• specialized skills training
• physical, occupational, speech and language therapy
• activities to develop learning and eating skills
• activities to help social and emotional development
• assistive technology
• moving on to school or other services as needed at age 3 or when graduating from the program
• nutritional services
• supporting child care or preschool teachers of enrolled children

Services for families could include:

• education and counseling
• coordination of needed social and health services
• access to support groups