OHI - A Quick Overview
Other
Health Impairments is one of the disabilities listed under IDEA. IDEA lists
some of the common health conditions that typically fall under this disability
category. The ones listed are asthma, ADHD, ADD, diabetes, epilepsy, heart
conditions, nephrites, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, rheumatic fever,
sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome (National Dissemination Center for Children
with Disabilities, 2012). The article provides a brief, helpful, description of
each of these conditions. However, having one of these conditions it is not
enough for a child to be diagnosed as OHI. In order to qualify for special
education services, the child’s condition must also adversely affect his or her
educational performance. “Health impairments can affect a student’s educational
performance. In fact, for a child to qualify for special education services in
the public schools under the category of OHI, the health impairment must affect
the child’s educational performance” (National Dissemination Center for Children with
Disabilities, 2012).
Children diagnosed with OHI are
eligible for special education services, and related services. Two related
services that are most used for children with OHI are medical services, and
school/health services, and these are determined by the IEP team (National
Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, 2012). Students with
medical conditions may miss a lot of school. National Dissemination Center for
Children with Disabilities (2012) states, “It’s not uncommon
for a child with an OHI to be absent from school, sometimes even for long periods
of time, especially if a hospitalization is necessary. During these times, the
public school remains responsible for providing educational and related
services to the eligible child with OHI. Because IDEA specifically says that
special education can be provided in a range of settings, including the home or
the hospital, states and school districts will have policies and approaches for
addressing children’s individualized needs and circumstances.”
The
article also mentions other conditions that may fall under the OHI category.
These include, but are not limited to, fetal alcohol syndrome, bipolar disorders,
dysphagia, and other organic neurological disorders (National Dissemination Center for Children
with Disabilities, 2012). My favorite thing about the article OHI overview, is that is
provides websites for further information on each condition. This “article” can
serve as a quick hand out for teachers to become aware of different conditions,
as well as, provide them to websites that can further assist them with
knowledge about a specific condition.
Reference
National Dissemination Center
for Children with Disabilities, (., & FHI, 3. (2012). Other Health
Impairment. NICHCY Disability Fact Sheet #15.
I really liked that your article provided examples of what would be considered OHI. I like the idea of using the article of a quick reference guide for OHI's. It is so hard to remember all of the different conditions that can qualify a student for services!! Great tool to check and see if a student may qualify for a service they are not receiving.
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