Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 115 - State superintendent; general classifications and definitions; children with disabilities.
115.76 - Definitions.

115.76 Definitions. In this subchapter:
(1) “Assistive technology device" means any item, piece of equipment or product system that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability other than a medical device that is surgically implanted or the replacement of such a device.
(2) “Assistive technology service" means any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition or use of an assistive technology device, including all of the following:
(a) The evaluation of the needs of the child, including a functional evaluation of the child in the child's customary environment.
(b) Purchasing, leasing or otherwise providing for the acquisition of assistive technology devices by the child.
(c) Selecting, designing, fitting, customizing, adapting, applying, maintaining, repairing or replacing of assistive technology devices.
(d) Coordinating and using other therapies, interventions or services with assistive technology devices, such as those associated with existing education and rehabilitative plans and programs.
(e) Training or technical assistance for the child or, where appropriate, the child's family.
(f) Training or technical assistance for professionals, including individuals providing education and rehabilitative services, employers or other individuals who provide services to, employ or are otherwise substantially involved in the major life functions of the child.
(3) “Child" means any person who is at least 3 years old but not yet 21 years old and who has not graduated from high school and, for the duration of a school term, any person who becomes 21 years old during that school term and who has not graduated from high school, and includes a child who is homeless, a child who is a ward of the state, county, or child welfare agency, and a child who is attending a private school.
(5)
(a) “Child with a disability" means a child who, by reason of any of the following, needs special education and related services:
1. Cognitive disabilities.
2. Hearing impairments.
3. Speech or language impairments.
4. Visual impairments.
5. Emotional behavioral disability.
6. Orthopedic impairments.
7. Autism.
8. Traumatic brain injury.
9. Other health impairments.
10. Learning disabilities.
(b) “Child with a disability" may, at the discretion of the local educational agency and consistent with department rules, include a child who, by reason of his or her significant developmental delay, needs special education and related services.
(6) “Division" means the division for learning support in the department.
(7) “Free appropriate public education" means special education and related services that are provided at public expense and under public supervision and direction, meet the standards of the department, include an appropriate preschool, elementary or secondary school education and are provided in conformity with an individualized education program.
(8) “Hearing officer" means an independent examiner appointed to conduct hearings under s. 115.80.
(9) “Individualized education program" means a written statement for a child with a disability that is developed, reviewed and revised in accordance with s. 115.787.
(10) “Local educational agency", except as otherwise provided, means the school district in which the child with a disability resides, the department of health services if the child with a disability resides in an institution or facility operated by the department of health services, or the department of corrections if the child with a disability resides in a Type 1 juvenile correctional facility, as defined in s. 938.02 (19), or a Type 1 prison, as defined in s. 301.01 (5).
(11) “Native language", when used with reference to an individual of limited English proficiency, means the language normally used by the individual.
(12)
(a) “Parent" means any of the following:
1. A biological parent.
2. A husband who has consented to the artificial insemination of his wife under s. 891.40.
3. A male who is presumed to be the child's father under s. 891.41.
4. A male who has been adjudicated the child's father under subch. VIII of ch. 48, under subch. IX of ch. 767, by final order or judgment of an Indian tribal court of competent jurisdiction or by final order or judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction in another state.
5. An adoptive parent.
6. A legal guardian.
7. A person acting as a parent of a child.
9. A person assigned as a surrogate parent under s. 115.792 (1) (a) 2.
10. A foster parent, if the right and the responsibility of all of the persons specified in subds. 1. to 5. to make educational decisions concerning a child have been extinguished by termination of parental rights, by transfer of guardianship or legal custody or by other court order, and if the foster parent has an ongoing, long-term parental relationship with the child, is willing to make the educational decisions that are required of a parent under this subchapter and has no interests that would conflict with the interests of the child.
(b) “Parent" does not include any of the following:
1. A person whose parental rights have been terminated.
2. The state, a county, or a child welfare agency, if a child was made a ward of the state, county, or child welfare agency under ch. 54, 2017 stats., or ch. 880, 2003 stats., or if a child has been placed in the legal custody or guardianship of the state, county, or child welfare agency under ch. 48 or 767.
3. An American Indian tribal agency if the child was made a ward of the agency or placed in the legal custody or guardianship of the agency.
(13) “Person acting as a parent of a child" means a relative of the child or a private individual allowed to act as a parent of a child by the child's biological or adoptive parents or guardian, and includes the child's grandparent, neighbor, friend or private individual caring for the child with the explicit or tacit approval of the child's biological or adoptive parents or guardian. “Person acting as a parent of a child" does not include any person that receives public funds to care for the child if such funds exceed the cost of such care.
(14)
(a) “Related services" means transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as may be required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education, including all of the following:
1. Speech-language pathology and audiology services.
2. Interpreting services.
3. Psychological services.
4. Physical and occupational therapy.
5. Recreation, including therapeutic recreation.
6. Social work services.
7. School nursing services designed to enable a child with a disability to receive a free appropriate public education as described in the child's individualized education program.
8. Counseling services, including rehabilitative counseling.
9. Orientation and mobility services.
10. Medical services for diagnostic and evaluative purposes only.
11. The early identification and assessment of disabling conditions in children.
(b) “Related services" does not include a medical device that is surgically implanted or the replacement of such a device.
(14g) “Residential care center for children and youth" means a facility operated by a child welfare agency licensed under s. 48.60 for the care and maintenance of children residing in that facility.
(15) “Special education" means specially designed instruction, regardless of where the instruction is conducted, that is provided at no cost to the child or the child's parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including instruction in physical education.
(16) “Supplementary aids and services" means aids, services and other supports that are provided in regular education classes or other education-related settings to enable a child with a disability to be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate.
(17) “Transition services" has the meaning given in 20 USC 1401 (34).
History: 1997 a. 164, 237; 1999 a. 116, 161; 2001 a. 59; 2005 a. 258, 344, 387; 2005 a. 443 s. 265; 2007 a. 20 s. 9121 (6) (a); 2007 a. 97; 2011 a. 158; 2015 a. 128; 2019 a. 109.

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