§1942. Definitions

A. For purposes of this Chapter, the definitions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 are hereby adopted unless otherwise provided by this Chapter or duly adopted regulations or policies.

B. A "student with an exceptionality", including a student with a disability, is any student who is evaluated according to state and federal regulation or policy and is deemed to have a mental disability, hearing loss (including deafness), multiple disabilities, deaf-blindness, speech or language impairment, visual impairment (including blindness), emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, traumatic brain injury, autism, or is deemed to be gifted or talented, and as a result requires special education and related services. A student with an exceptionality may include, as determined by the local education agency, a student experiencing developmental delay ages three through eight.

C. "Education service agency" means a regional public multiservice administrative agency authorized by state law to develop, manage, and provide services or programs to local education agencies and includes any other public institution or agency having administrative control and direction over a public elementary or secondary school.

D. "Local education agency" means a public board of education or other public authority legally constituted within Louisiana for administrative control and direction of or to perform a service function for public elementary or secondary schools in a city, parish, or other local public school district or other political subdivision. The term includes an education service agency and special schools and school districts as that term is used in R.S. 17:1945 and any other public institution or agency having administrative control and direction of a public elementary or secondary school.

E. "Resident" as it applies to a student with an exceptionality for purposes of this Chapter shall mean any one of the following:

(1) The student is a resident within the geographical boundaries of the local education agency in which the student's parent or parents have their legal residence, unless the parent or parents have relinquished custody of the student. In such case, the student is a resident within the geographical boundaries of the local education agency in which the student's legal custodian or custodians have their legal residence.

(2) If a student's parents are divorced, the student is a resident of the local education agency in which the student's domiciliary or custodial parent or parents have their legal residence.

(3) If a student is in foster care, the student is a resident of the local education agency in which the parent or parents with whom the student lived immediately prior to being placed into foster care have their legal residence.

Acts 1977, No. 754, §1; Acts 1998, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 109, §1, eff. May 5, 1998; Acts 2008, No. 376, §1; Acts 2017, No. 146, §3.