S.D. Admin. R. 20:75:02:07
A disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of an individual; having a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment. Mental impairment includes any mental or psychological disorder, such as organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities.
A learning disability is individual evidence of significant learning difficulties which substantially affect or limit one or more major life activities and which are not primarily due to cultural, emotional, or motivational factors. The term does not include learning problems which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, intellectual disability, emotional disturbance, or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. The individual must show evidence of significant impairment in one or more of the following areas of intellectual functioning and information processing:
Significant impairment is determined by a discrepancy of 1.5 standard deviations, or more, between the individual's intellectual functioning, as measured by one of the general cognitive ability tests listed in the List of Most Commonly Used Reliable Standardized Psychometric Tests in Appendix A at the end of this chapter and actual performance on reliable standardized measures of attention and concentration, memory, language reception and expression, cognition, and in the academic areas of reading, spelling, writing, and mathematics. If a measurement instrument is used which is not on this list, it may be considered if it is listed in the Mental Measurements Yearbook issued by Buros Institute of Mental Measurement, University of Nebraska, and is being used for the purpose for which it was developed.
S.D. Admin. R. 20:75:02:07
General Authority: SDCL 36-20B-12(16).
Law Implemented: SDCL 36-20B-12(16).
Mental Measurements Yearbook 20, January 2017 edition, Buros Mental Measurement Institute, University of Nebraska. Copies of the yearbook may be ordered from the University of Nebraska Press, PO Box 880484, Lincoln, NE 68588. The cost of the yearbook is $210. The South Dakota State Library has the yearbook in its reference collection.