Special Services Home
Welcome to Special Services
It is the intent of the Morgan County Special Education Department to serve the special needs students in Morgan County in an efficient and timely manner. Each child is evaluated, and an educational program developed to meet the individual needs of that student. The following information summarizes special services available in Morgan County. Help Child Find locate children with disabilities.
CHILD FIND
It is the responsibility of the Morgan County School System to develop and implement procedures that ensure all children within its jurisdiction, three to twenty-one years of age, regardless of the severity of their disability and who need special education and related services are identified, located, and evaluated.
What Is Child Find? Child Find is a statewide effort by the Alabama State Department of Education and the Department of Rehabilitation Services to locate, identify, and evaluate children with disabilities from birth to age 21.
How Does Child Find Work? Early Intervention and Special Education Services work closely with community service agencies, parents, and local school systems to locate children with disabilities.
Why Is Child Find Important? It helps the child, the family, and the provider to plan appropriate services and link families to services for students meeting eligibility requirements in the following disability areas:
- Hearing Impairment
- Deaf-Blindness
- Intellectual Disabilities
- Multiple Disabilities
- Other Health Impairment
- Other Health Impairment
- Emotional Disability
- Speech and Language Impairment
- Visual Impairment
- Specific Learning Disabilities
- Autism
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Developmental Delay
For more information about Child Find, contact Dr. Rhonda Booth, Director of Special Education Services for Morgan County Schools
- Ages 3-2: 1-256-309-2100
- Birth through age 2: 1-800-543-3098
Information
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- AUTISM - A developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction generally evident before age three that adversely affects educational performance.
- DEAF-BLINDNESS - A combination of both hearing and visual impairments causing severe communication and other developmental and educational needs.
- DEVELOPMENTAL DELAY - A delay that adversely affects daily life and/or educational performance in one or more of the following developmental areas and may identify a child for this area of the disability on his or her third birthday:
- Adaptive development
- Cognitive development
- Communication development
- Social and emotional development
- Physical development
- EMOTIONAL DISABILITY - A condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period and to a marked degree, adversely affecting educational performance:
- An inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory or health factors;
- An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers;
- Inappropriate types 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.
- HEARING IMPAIRMENT - An impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Includes deaf and hard of hearing.
- INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY - Significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with significant limitations in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects the child's educational performance.
- MULTIPLE DISABILITIES - The combination of impairments such as intellectual disability and blindness or intellectual disability and orthopedic impairment causing severe educational needs that cannot be accommodated in programs solely for one impairment. Does not include deaf-blindness.
- ORTHOPEDIC IMPAIRMENT - A severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance. A medical diagnosis alone is not enough for identification.
- OTHER HEALTH IMPAIRED - Limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including heightened sensitivity to environmental stimuli, that adversely affects educational performance due to chronic or acute health problems.
- SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY - A disorder in one or more basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, which may affect listening, thinking, speaking, reading, writing, spelling, or mathematical calculations.
- SPEECH AND LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT - A communication disorder in articulation, voice, language, or fluency, adversely affecting educational performance.
- TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY - An acquired brain injury caused by external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, adversely affecting educational performance.
- VISUAL IMPAIRMENT - A visual impairment that, even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance.
- PRESCHOOL SPECIAL EDUCATION - Children ages 3–6 with any of the above disabilities may qualify for preschool special education services.
- GIFTED - Children performing at high levels academically or creatively compared with peers may qualify for gifted services. LEA_Plan_Morgan_Co_23-24