La. Admin. Code tit. 28 § CI-701

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 11, November 20, 2024

Section CI-701 - Autism

A. Definition. Autism (Autism Spectrum Disorders) means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction; generally evident before age three that adversely affects a student'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. The term does not apply if a student's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the student has an emotional disturbance. A student who manifests the characteristics of autism after age three could be identified as having autism if the criteria are satisfied.

1. There may be coexisting conditions/associated features that may include, but are not limited to cognitive delays, seizure activity, depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorders, Tourette Syndrome, fragile X syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, pica, allergies, self-injurious behaviors, sleeping and toileting problems, etc.

2. Asperger's Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), Rett's Disorder, or Childhood Disintegrative Disorder may be considered for the classification if the criteria for autism are met.

B. Criteria for Eligibility. The multidisciplinary team may determine that the student displays autism if disturbances identified in all three of the categories below exist and adversely affect a student's educational performance. These disturbances may be characterized by delays, deviancies, arrests, and/or regressions in typical skill development, and/or precocious skill acquisition. While autism is behaviorally defined, manifestation of behavioral characteristics may vary along a continuum ranging from mild to severe.

1. Communication. A minimum of two of the following items must be documented:

a. disturbances in the development of spoken language;

b. disturbances in conceptual development (e.g., has difficulty with or does not understand time but may be able to tell time; does not understand WH-questions; has good oral reading fluency but poor comprehension; knows multiplication facts but cannot use them functionally; does not appear to understand directional concepts, but can read a map and find the way home; repeats multi-word utterances, but cannot process the semantic-syntactic structure, etc.);

c. marked impairment in the ability to attract another's attention, to initiate, or to sustain a socially appropriate conversation;

d. disturbances in shared joint attention (acts used to direct another's attention to an object, action, or person for the purpose of sharing the focus on an object, person or event);

e. stereotypical and/or repetitive use of vocalizations, verbalizations and/or idiosyncratic language (students with Asperger's syndrome may display these verbalizations at a higher level of complexity or sophistication);

f. echolalia with or without communicative intent (may be immediate, delayed, or mitigated);

g. marked impairment in the use and/or understanding of nonverbal (e.g., eye-to-eye gaze, gestures, body postures, facial expressions) and/or symbolic communication (e.g., signs, pictures, words, sentences, written language);

h. prosody variances including, but not limited to, unusual pitch, rate, volume and/or other intonational contours;

i. scarcity of symbolic play.

2. Relating to people, events, and/or objects: A minimum of four of the following items must be documented:

a. difficulty in developing interpersonal relationships appropriate for developmental level;

b. impairments in social and/or emotional reciprocity, or awareness of the existence of others and their feelings;

c. developmentally inappropriate or minimal spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, achievements, and/or interests with others;

d. absent, arrested, or delayed capacity to use objects/tools functionally, and/or to assign them symbolic and/or thematic meaning;

e. difficulty generalizing and/or discerning inappropriate versus appropriate behavior across settings and situations;

f. lack of/or minimal varied spontaneous pretend/make-believe play and/or social imitative play;

g. difficulty comprehending other people's social/communicative intentions (e.g., does not understand jokes, sarcasm, irritation; social cues), interests, or perspectives;

h. impaired sense of behavioral consequences (e.g., using the same tone of voice and/or language whether talking to authority figures or peers, no fear of danger or injury to self or others).

3. Restricted, repetitive and/or stereotyped patterns of behaviors, interests, and/or activities: A minimum of two of the following items must be documented:

a. unusual patterns of interest and/or topics that are abnormal either in intensity or focus (e.g., knows all baseball statistics, TV programs; has collection of light bulbs);

b. marked distress over change and/or transitions (e.g., substitute teacher, moving from one activity to another);

c. unreasonable insistence on following specific rituals or routines (e.g., taking the same route to school, flushing all toilets before leaving a setting, turning on all lights upon returning home);

d. stereotyped and/or repetitive motor movements (e.g., hand flapping, finger flicking, hand washing, rocking, spinning);

e. persistent preoccupation with an object or parts of objects (e.g., taking magazine everywhere he/she goes, playing with a string, spinning wheels on toy car, interested only in church steeple rather than the church);

C. Procedures for Evaluation. Conduct all procedures described under §513, Evaluation Components.

D. Additional procedures for evaluation:

1. a comprehensive assessment conducted by a certified school psychologist, licensed psychologist, physician or other qualified examiner trained or experienced in the evaluation of students with developmental disabilities;

2. systematic observations of the student in interaction with others such as parents, teachers, and peers across settings in the student's customary environments;

3. if the results of hearing screening are not definitive, the student shall be referred to an audiologist;

4. a speech and language assessment conducted by a speech/language pathologist trained and experienced in the evaluation of children with developmental disabilities. For non-verbal communicators, an augmentative/alternative communication assessment should be conducted to determine needs and modes of communication;

5. the educational assessment shall include the review and analysis of the student's response to scientifically research-based interventions documented by progress monitoring data, when appropriate;

6. an occupational therapy assessment to address sensory processing and motor difficulties. All observed symptoms should be clearly documented. At a minimum, sensory processing assessment should address the following:

a. visual symptoms;

b. auditory symptoms;

c. tactile symptoms;

d. vestibular (balance) symptoms;

e. olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) symptoms;

f. proprioceptive (movement) symptoms;

g. motor planning difficulties; and

h. attention/arousal difficulties;

7. other assessments (e.g., adaptive behavior) as determined to be appropriate and necessary by the evaluation coordinator and the multidisciplinary team.

La. Admin. Code tit. 28, § CI-701

Promulgated by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, LR 35:904 (May 2009), effective July 1, 2009.

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 17:1941 et seq.