Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Special Education is defined as: "Specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability." Special education provides additional services, support, programs, specialized placements or environments to ensure that all students' educational needs are provided for so academic progress can be made. The 13 categories under IDEA include:

• Autism (A)
• Deaf-Blindness (D-B)
• Deafness (D)
• Emotional Disturbance (ED)
• Hearing Impairments (HI)
• Intellectual Disability (ID)
• Learning Disability (LD)
• Multiple Disabilities (MD)
• Orthopedic Impairments (OI)
• Other Health Impairments (OHI)
• Speech and Language Impairments (SLI)
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• Visual Impairments (VI)