A child with a visual impairment, including blindness, shall have a deficiency in visual acuity and/or visual field and/or visual functioning where, even with the use of lenses or corrective devices, he/she is prevented from receiving reasonable educational benefit from general education.
Student must be diagnosed by a medical eye doctor in a current eye report with one of the following to qualify for services:
- Visual acuity of no better than 20/70 in the better eye after correction.
- Visual field restriction to 20 degrees or less.
- A physical condition of the visual system that cannot be medically corrected and, as such, affects visual functioning to the extent that specially designed instruction is needed. These criteria are reserved for special situations such as, but not restricted to cortical visual impairment and/or a progressive visual loss where field and/or acuity deficits alone may not meet the aforementioned criteria.
The visual impairment, including blindness, as described above, prevents the child from receiving reasonable educational benefit from general education as evidenced by the following criterion:
- Requirement of specialized instruction, which may include special aids, materials, and equipment, for learning, literacy, activities of daily living, social interaction, self advocacy, and, as needed, orientation and mobility.
Note: The term “visual impairment, including blindness” does not include children who have learning problems which are primarily the result of visual perceptual and/or visual motor difficulties.
In the event that the child who is deaf-blind does not meet the above requirements for visual impairment, including blindness, the combination of an existing vision loss and the documented hearing loss adversely affects the child’s educational performance.