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2005 SESSION

051854456
HOUSE BILL NO. 2752
Offered January 12, 2005
A BILL to amend and reenact § 22.1-213 of the Code of Virginia, relating to special education services for medically fragile children.
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Patrons-- Petersen and Marshall, R.G.
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Referred to Committee on Education
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1.  That § 22.1-213 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 22.1-213. Definitions.

As used in this article:

"Children with disabilities" means those persons (i) who are aged two to twenty-one, inclusive, having reached the age of two by the date specified in § 22.1-254, (ii) who are mentally retarded, physically disabled, seriously emotionally disturbed, speech impaired, hearing impaired, visually impaired, multiple disabled, medically fragile, other health impaired including autistic or who have a specific learning disability or who are otherwise disabled as defined by the Board of Education and (iii) who because of such impairments need special education.

"Related services" means transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are required to assist a disabled child to benefit from special education, including speech pathology and audiology, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, early identification and assessment of disabilities in children, counseling services and medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes. The term also includes school health services, social work services in schools, and parent counseling and training.

"Special education" means specially designed instruction at no cost to the parent, to meet the unique needs of a disabled child, including classroom instruction, home instruction, instruction provided in hospitals and institutions, instruction in physical education and instruction in career and technical education.

"Specific learning disability" means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical calculations. The term does not include children who have learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor handicaps, of mental retardation, or of environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage.

2.  That the Board of Education shall promulgate regulations defining "medically fragile" students to include, at a minimum, those students with a medical condition  that  (i) has been diagnosed by a licensed physician; (ii) is unstable, pervasive, intermittent, chronic, progressive, or degenerative;  and (iii) affects the student's ability to access effectively the general curriculum. 

3.  The Board shall promulgate regulations to implement the provisions of this act to be effective within 280 days of its enactment.