Part 200 of the Regulations of the Commissioner states, "Eligibility as a preschool student with a disability shall be based on the results of an individual evaluation which is provided in the student's native language, not dependent on a single procedure, and administered by a multidisciplinary team in accordance with all other requirements as described in section 200.4(b) and 200.16(c) of the regulations.

1. Commencing July 1, 1993, to be identified as having a disability, a preschool student shall either:

(i) exhibit a significant delay or disability in one or more functional areas related to cognitive, language and communicative, adaptive, socio-emotional or motor development which adversely affects the student's ability to learn. Such delay or disability shall be documented by the results of the individual evaluation which includes but is not limited to information in all functional areas obtained from a structured observation of a student's performance and behavior, a parental interview and other individually administered assessment procedures, and, when reviewed in combination and compared to accepted milestones for child development, indicate:

1. a 12-month delay in one or more functional area(s); or

2. a 33 percent delay in one functional area or a 25 percent delay in each of two functional areas; or
3. if appropriate standardized instruments are individually administered in the evaluation process, a score of 2.0 standard deviations below the mean in one functional area, or a score of 1.5 standard deviations below the mean in each of two functional areas; * or

(ii) meet the criteria set forth in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (5), (9), (10), (12), or (13) of subdivision (zz) of this section."

* Calculated on the basis of months

A preschool child (ages 3 through 5) can be classified as a Preschool Student with a Disability if he/she meets the criteria set forth in these current disability classifications in the Part 200 Regulations:

- autism	- deaf-blindness
- deafness	- hearing impairment
- orthopedic impairment	- other health impairment
- traumatic brain injury	- visual impairment, including blindness

To determine a child's eligibility for special education programs and/or services, there must be a significant delay or disability in the child's development. Criteria to consider when determining whether a child exhibits a delay or disability in one or more of the major areas of development are as follows:

Delay or Disability in Cognitive Development

A child with a cognitive delay or disability demonstrates deficits in intellectual abilities beyond normal variations for age and cultural background. This might include difficulties in:

• the ability to acquire information,
• problem solving,
• reasoning skills,
• the ability to generalize information,
• rate of learning,
• processing difficulties,
• memory delays,
• attention, and
• organization skills.

• The child has significant delays in cognitive abilities, as reflected in intellectual assessment scores, neuropsychological findings, teacher or parent rating scales, and/or results of structured observations in a classroom or other setting.

• The child shows significant discrepancies beyond what would be normally expected within or between skill development areas, such as differences between verbal and nonverbal skills, differences within verbal sub-areas, or within perceptual-motor sub-areas. For example, a child with good acuity to visual details may show significant deficits in problem-solving spatial skills.

A child with a delay or disability in language and communication demonstrates deficits beyond normal variation for age and cultural background that adversely affect the ability to learn or acquire skills in the primary language in one or more of the following areas: 

• receptive language,
• expressive language,
• articulation/phonology,
• pragmatics,
• fluency,
• oral-motor skills, or
• voice (such as sound quality, breath support).

• The child does not use communication effectively with peers and/or adults. For example, the child does not express needs and wants in most situations.
• The child's speech and language cannot be understood by others in the child's environment who speak the same language. This may include family members, playmates or other children in the child's preschool program.
• The child exhibits observable severe or frequent frustration because of communication difficulties.
• The child exhibits speech sound and/or phonological process errors that impair intelligibility and are not developmentally appropriate. For example, speech sound production impairs listener's ability to understand the child.
• The child has difficulty understanding and using age-appropriate vocabulary, language concepts, and/or conversation (for example, limited vocabulary, sentence structure, and functional use of language restrict communication). In dual language acquisition, delays in both languages in young children are typical.
• The child demonstrates specific weaknesses in pragmatic language ability. For example, limited turn-taking, eye contact, asking and responding to questions, or knowledge of the speaker/listener role interfere with communication.
• The child demonstrates difficulty processing auditory information. For example, following simple directions or answering simple questions present problems for the child.
• The child demonstrates oral motor difficulty, such as in swallowing or feeding, and/or developmental apraxia, the inability to coordinate speech muscle movement to say words. For example, the child has difficulty combining sounds to say words and/or there is excessive drooling or weak oral muscle movement.
• The child demonstrates speech dysfluency (stuttering) that interferes with communication abilities (for example, word sound repetitions and/or speech productions that interrupt smooth flow of speech).

A child with a delay or disability in adaptive development demonstrates difficulty learning or acquiring skills necessary for daily living and learning through play. These occur over time, in a variety of situations, and interfere with the effectiveness of the child's ability to meet personal needs, social responsibility, or participation in developmentally appropriate situations and cultural group. Adaptive behavior demonstrates the effectiveness with which the individual copes with the natural and social demands of his/her environment.

Adaptive behavior areas would include activities of daily living such as toileting, eating, dressing, and personal hygiene, as well as development of play skills including the acquisition of developmentally appropriate pretend or exploratory play and engagement in peer and adult social play. Consideration should be given to the following factors:

• family history, cultural factors, family expectations, and opportunities to develop self-help skills;
• motor contributions to functional skills, such as fine motor skills necessary for managing, fastening, or engaging in object exploration, oral motor components to eating or the gross motor abilities that support environmental exploration;
• the child's ability to accomplish activities of daily living adequately and as efficiently as the child's typically developing peers;
• the necessity for extensive task adaptations needed to support adaptive skills that are unusual for typically developing peers (for example, while the use of a covered cup or diaper is common for two-year-olds, it is not expected of a four-year-old);
• an inflexibility or rigidity in play behavior (for example, ritualistic self-stimulating behavior or engaging in spinning or rigid horizontal alignment of objects during free play rather than exploratory manipulation that is based on object properties);
• an avoidance of peer social interaction during play, with a preference for interaction exclusively with adults or observation of peers rather than active engagement with them during free play opportunities; and
• limitations in the initiation of play activities in either independent or free play (for example, some children will seem passive during free play either unaware of the play potential of a situation or afraid to engage in activities unless invited).

A child with a delay or disability in social-emotional development demonstrates deviations in affect or relational skills beyond normal variation for age and cultural background. These problems are exhibited over time, in various circumstances, and adversely affect the child's development of age-appropriate skills.

• The child shows significant observable behaviors such as perseveration, inability to transition, overdependence on structure and routine, and/or rigidity.
• The child exhibits significant patterns of difficulty in the following relational areas: trust building, aggressiveness, compliance, lack of age-appropriate self-control, oppositional/defiant behavior, destructive behavior, poor awareness of self and others, or inappropriate play skills for age.
• The child has significant affect difficulties such as depression/withdrawal, limited range of emotions for a given situation, low frustration tolerance, excessive fear/anxiety, radical mood swings, and/or inappropriate fears (for example, a child who often misinterprets the approach of other children or adults as hostile in intent).

A child with a delay or disability in motor development demonstrates a deficit beyond normal variability for age and experience in either coordination, movement patterns, quality, or range of motion or strength and endurance of gross (large muscle), fine (small muscle), or perceptual motor (integration of sensory and motor) abilities that adversely affects the child’s ability to learn or acquire skills relative to one or more of the following:

• maintaining or controlling posture,
• functional mobility (for example, walking or running),
• sensory awareness of the body or movement,
• sensory-integration,
• reach and/or grasp of objects,
• tool use,
• perceptual motor abilities (for example, eye-hand coordination for tracing),
• sequencing motor components to achieve a functional goal.

• The child is unable to maintain a stable posture or transition between positions (for example, to go from standing to floor sitting) to support learning or interactive tasks.
• The child is unable to move about the environment in an efficient way that is not disruptive to others. Efficient mobility refers to both the time required for moving from one place to another and the amount of energy the child must expend to move.
• The child uses an inefficient or abnormal grasp or reach pattern that limits the ability to either explore or use objects. An inefficient grasp or reach is one which does not enable flexible manipulation, limits use of tools such as writing implements or silverware in functional tasks, leads to fatigue, or limits the child's ability to obtain or use learning materials.
• The child has problems with learning new gross and/or fine motor abilities or in using motor skills in a flexible functional way. The child does not seem to accomplish motor tasks automatically after practice and attends to the motor aspects rather than cognitive or exploratory components of play or pre-academic programming.
• The child may achieve developmentally appropriate skills as measured on formal testing but has significant asymmetry that interferes with bilateral manipulation or tool use (for example, child is unable to transfer objects from hand to hand or stabilize paper when writing or cutting).
• The child is unable to sequence one or more motor actions in order to accomplish a goal. This includes the child with clumsiness that consistently interferes with goal-directed social or object interaction.
• The child has difficulty participating in gross motor activities, is unable to complete many of the tasks performed by typically developing peers, or may refuse to participate in activities rather than seem uncoordinated.
• The child has problems in the neurological processing of information from any of the senses and organizing it for use.