[+] Read about the specific criteria used to diagnose intellectual disabilities.
Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education – Criteria for a Diagnosis of Intellectual Disability
A child displays an intellectual disability when:
- The child performs 2.0 Standard Deviations below their peers of equivalent age, ethnic and cultural background when measured by a standardized instrument of cognitive ability
- The child displays adaptive behavior consistent with measured cognitive ability.
Adaptive behavior refers to the effectiveness with which a student meets the standards of personal independence and social responsibility expected of his/her age and cultural group. There should be a significant positive correlation between the student's intellectual ability and adaptive behavior. If not, the team must give careful consideration to other evaluative information and utilize professional judgment to determine the student's level of cognitive and adaptive functioning
- The disability adversely affects the child’s educational performance
NOTE ON PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT: A child may also be deemed eligible if the child displays, through formal and informal assessment, a significant discrepancy even though the deviations do not fall below the criterion range. In such cases, sufficient data must be present in the evaluation report to document the existence of a significant discrepancy
[+] Other local, state and national resources related to intellectual disabilities
Local Resources
Assistance with Respite Care in the Home (ARCH)
www.slarc.org
Belle Center
www.bellecenter.com
Bridges Community Support Services
www.bridgescss.com
Children's Home Society of Missouri
www.chsmo.org
Down Syndrome Association of St. Louis
www.dsagsl.org
Life Skills Foundation
www.lifeskills-stl.org
Missouri Protection & Advocacy Services (MOPAS or P & A)
www.moadvocacy.org
MPACT (Missouri Parents Act)
www.ptimpact.org
Productive Living Board for St. Louis County
Citizens
with Developmental Disabilities
www.plboard.com
St. Louis Arc
www.slarc.org
St. Louis Office for Mental Retardation and Developmental Disability Resources (MR/DD)
www.mrdd.org
St. Louis Regional Center
http://stlouis.mo.networkofcare.org/dd/
United Cerebral Palsy Association of Greater St. Louis (UCPA)
www.ucpstl.org
State Resources
Missouri Developmental Disabilities Resource Center
University of Missouri-Kansas City
www.moddrc.org
Missouri Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities
www.mpcdd.com
National Resources
Association for Children with Down Syndrome (ACDS)
www.acds.org
Association for Persons in Supported Employment (APSE)
www.apse.org
Association for Retarded Citizens (The ARC)
www.thearc.org
Beach Center on Disability
www.beachcenter.org
National Association for Down Syndrome
www.nads.org
National Down Syndrome Society
www.ndss.org
National Fragile X Foundation
www.fragilex.org
Prader-Willi Syndrome Association
www.pwsausa.org 
