162.A child or young person has special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them.
163.Children and young people with special educational needs may require extra or different provision in relation to thinking and understanding, as a result of physical or sensory difficulties, emotional or behavioural difficulties, difficulties with speech and language or how they relate to and behave with other people. Disabled children and young people may require extra or different provision, for example, if they are less mobile than their peers and require additional or extra provision so they can access the same learning opportunities.
164.A child or young person does not have a learning difficulty or disability simply because the language in which they are (or will be) taught is different from the one they speak at home.
165.This section replicates the current definition of special educational needs in section 312 of the Education Act 1996 and the definition of a learning difficulty in section 15Z(6) and (7) of the Education Act 1996, applying a single definition to children and young people from birth to 25.
166.Section 83 defines various terms:
Young person is a person over compulsory school age(1) but under 25.
Child is a person who is not over compulsory school age: see section 579 of the Education Act 1996.
Mainstream schools are maintained schools and Academy schools that are not special schools. A maintained school is a community, foundation or voluntary school, or a community or foundation special school not established in a hospital.
Post-16 institution is any institution that provides education or training for those over compulsory school age, but which is not a school or within the higher education sector. Mainstream post-16 institutions are those which are not specially organised to make special educational provision for students with special educational needs, that is, further education colleges, sixth form colleges, 16-19 Academies and training providers. Special post-16 institutions are post-16 institutions that are specially organised to make special educational provision for students with special educational needs. They are not within the further education sector or 16-19 Academies and are currently often referred to as independent specialist providers or independent specialist colleges.
Compulsory school age has the meaning given by section 8 of the Education Act 1996. A person begins to be of compulsory school age when he attains the age of 5 on 31st March, 31st August or 31st December in any year, or where he attains the age of 5 on another date, he begins to be of compulsory school age on whichever of those dates comes next after his fifth birthday. He ceases to be of compulsory school age on the last Friday in June of the school year in which he attains the age of 16.