Special Education Eligibility Criteria and Professional Certification Requirements in the United States Related to Students with Visual Impairments and Deafblindness

Giving access to a state-by-state snapshot of eligibility criteria for students with visual impairments and deafblindness, as well as licensure requirements for Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVIs) and Orientation & Mobility (O&M) specialists. Data were collected from state regulatory and policy documents between January and October 2021, covering all 50 states, Washington DC, and five US territories. It captures variability in how states implement federal special education law.

Use Cases

• Compare state-level eligibility criteria for the visual impairment and deafblindness categories to analyze policy alignment with federal IDEA definitions.
• Analyze the variability in licensure requirements for Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVIs) across US states and territories.
• Map the distribution of specific professional requirements for Orientation & Mobility (O&M) specialists to identify regional trends in certification standards.
• Investigate correlations between state-specific definitions for sensory impairments and the corresponding professional licensure frameworks.

Strengths

• Data collection involved measures to ensure high inter-rater reliability across states and variables.
• Coverage includes all 50 US states, Washington DC, and five US territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands).
• Provides a focused snapshot of policy variability for two specific professional roles (TVIs and O&M specialists) and two primary sensory impairment categories.

Limitations

• Data is a snapshot from 2021 and may be outdated due to subsequent changes in state regulations or policies.
• The dataset is derived from document review and does not contain individual student or practitioner records for quantitative analysis.
• Reliability is dependent on the accuracy and completeness of the source state documents available during the collection period.

Provenance

Source

ICPSR Harvested Dataverse, authored by Rachel A. Schles.

Collection Method

Collected via review of state regulatory and policy documents.

Time Range

Data collected between January and October 2021.

Freshness

Data collected between January and October 2021; metadata last updated February 2026.

Geography

United States, including all 50 states, Washington DC, and five US territories.