On October 5, 2010, President Obama signed legislation requiring the federal government to replace the term “mental retardation” with “intellectual disability” in many areas of government. The measure known as Rosa’s Law, will strip the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” from federal health, education and labor policy. “Intellectual disability” or “individual with an intellectual disability” will be inserted in their places. The rights of individuals with disabilities will remain the same.
The ADE is working towards making this change to be consistent with this new legislation. Even with the new law in effect, this change will not occur immediately. The current disability categories of MIMR, MOMR, and SMR within SAIS will not be changed to reflect the new terminology until FY 2014. Please note however, that budget forms and worksheets for FY 2013 provided by School Finance includes the change from MMR to “Moderate Intellectual Disability”.
Over the course of this year, ADE/ESS will begin the conversion of all ESS related documents and business rules to the new terminology. Thank you for your patience as we make this transition.
