As part of our US Department of Education TPSID grant, our students must have an identified intellectual disability. If they do not, then they are not qualified to be part of our program.

BEFORE YOU APPLY, we suggest that you make sure you qualify.
 

How can you know if you qualify??

We use this definition for Intellectual Disability: https://www.aaidd.org/intellectual-disability/definition. The criteria for having an intellectual disability include: 

1. Significant challenges in most areas of cognitive functioning.
   
   This is typically defined as an IQ score on a standardized test of cognition two standard deviations or more below the average score (typically an IQ of 70 or below)
    
2. Significant challenges in meeting the expectations of daily life consistent with one’s age
   
   This is typically documented by a score on a standardized test or caregiver-completed questionnaire of adaptive behavior two standard deviations or more below the average score
    
3. The emergence of these challenges before the age of 22 years. 

Prospective students and/or families can either present test results consistent with these criteria or provide other documentation that the student has been diagnosed with an intellectual disability by an appropriate professional. 

The intellectual disability could be either the primary diagnosis or a secondary diagnosis (e.g., autism and a cooccurring intellectual disability)