Defining Autism: Variability in State Education Agency Definitions of and Evaluations for Autism Spectrum Disorders

Table 2

Features of state education agency evaluation procedures for autism.

IDEA evaluation features	Number of states	Percentage
Academic	45	88
Speech-language	45	88
Intelligence (or psychological)	43	84
Social and emotional	30	59
Health	29	57
Vision	29	57
Hearing	29	57
Motor skills	29	57
Other evaluation features
Parent interview	27	53
Social-developmental history	27	53
Observation	26	51
Adaptive behavior	26	51
Medical evaluations or information	18	35
Autism-specific	15	29
Behavioral scale	11	22
Sensory functioning	9	18
Developmental assessment	5	10