Emotional Disability in California: AB 2173, Eligibility, and Services

In California special education, “emotional disability” is the state term for the federal eligibility category that IDEA still calls “emotional disturbance.” The two labels mean the same thing: same criteria, same rights, same services. California adopted the gentler name on January 1, 2025, after Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2173 in July 2024.¹ If your child was previously found eligible under emotional disturbance, nothing about their IEP or protections changed; only the vocabulary did.

What Changed on January 1, 2025

AB 2173, the “Reducing Stigma in Education Act,” added Section 97 to the California Education Code. The statute says the federal term “emotional disturbance” “may also be known as ’emotional disability’ under state law.”² The word “may” matters in practice. Districts and other local educational agencies are permitted to use “emotional disability” interchangeably with the federal term, but the law does not force them to switch.³ You may see either name on paperwork depending on the district.

The bill’s author, Assemblymember Dawn Addis, a former special education teacher, said the older label stigmatized students “from the moment they enter the special education system, decreasing access to important services.” The California Association of School Psychologists supported the change, and no formal opposition was reported in legislative records. At the federal level, “emotional disturbance” remains one of the 13 disability categories under IDEA.¹

Who Qualifies

Eligibility criteria come from federal IDEA regulations at 34 CFR § 300.8(c)(4) and are mirrored in California’s Title 5 regulations at section 3030(b)(4).⁴⁵ A student qualifies if they show one or more of the following over a long period of time and to a marked degree, and the condition adversely affects educational performance:

An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
An inability to build or maintain satisfactory relationships with peers and teachers.
Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

Schizophrenia is included in the category. Students who are “socially maladjusted” are not covered unless they also meet the criteria above.⁴ IDEA does not define social maladjustment or tell school teams how to apply the exclusion, and in practice the label is sometimes used to deny services to students whose behaviors are characterized as delinquent or disruptive.⁶

A clinical diagnosis from the DSM does not automatically make a child eligible. The criteria are educational, not medical, and the IEP team must find that the emotional pattern itself is interfering with learning.⁷

Emotional Disability or Other Health Impairment?

If your child has ADHD or diagnosed anxiety, the IEP team may consider “Other Health Impairment” (OHI) instead. The two categories look at different things. Emotional disability focuses on patterns of mood, behavior, and social-emotional symptoms. OHI covers chronic or acute health conditions that result in limited strength, vitality, or alertness, and is commonly used for ADHD. The team chooses the category that best fits the student’s presentation.⁸ Historically, the stigma around the older label pushed some teams to classify students under OHI even when their primary struggles were emotional.

How a Child Gets Evaluated

Before a student can be found eligible, the district must complete a comprehensive evaluation. A multidisciplinary team conducts it, and a credentialed or licensed school psychologist must be part of that team.⁷

The assessment pulls from several sources:

A review of cumulative school files, prior assessments, and any records from mental health agencies or hospitals.
Interviews with the student and parents covering medical, developmental, and educational history.
Systematic observations across multiple school settings and times.
Standardized behavior and adaptive rating scales completed by people who know the child, along with personality and mental health inventories covering areas like anxiety and depression.
Intellectual assessment, when learning deficits are suspected.

Schools are also encouraged to use a Response to Intervention process, documenting that research-based interventions such as counseling, behavior contracts, or positive behavior support plans were tried first.⁷

Once the data is in, the IEP team determines eligibility. The behaviors must have persisted over a long period, reached a marked degree, and adversely affected educational performance. The team also has to rule out cultural, linguistic, or economic factors as the primary cause, and remember that social maladjustment alone is not enough.⁷

What Services Look Like

Once a student is found eligible, the IEP team designs a program around that student’s needs. For emotional disability, that typically means behavioral supports and mental health services alongside academic goals.

When behavior is impeding the student’s own learning or the learning of others, the team must consider positive behavioral interventions and supports. Where warranted, the team develops a Behavior Intervention Plan identifying the problem behavior, a hypothesis about why it happens, and strategies for prevention, reinforcement, redirection, and teaching replacement behaviors.⁹ A Functional Behavioral Assessment typically precedes or informs the plan, identifying when the behavior occurs, what triggers it, and what the student gets out of it.¹⁰

Beyond behavior plans, the IEP can include annual goals targeting social-emotional skills, program modifications, teacher support, counseling, and educationally related mental health services.¹¹ Plans must be designed by qualified professionals such as school psychologists, counselors, licensed clinical social workers, or behavior analysts, though trained staff can carry out day-to-day implementation under professional supervision.⁹

There are limits on what schools can do. Emergency physical interventions are allowed only when a student poses a clear and present danger of serious physical harm, and they cannot substitute for a systematic behavior plan. Locked seclusion, denial of food and water, and use of noxious substances are prohibited.⁹

Discipline Protections

Students eligible under emotional disability have the same discipline protections as other students with IEPs. If the school proposes to suspend a child for more than ten school days, the IEP team must hold a “manifestation determination” to decide whether the behavior was caused by or substantially related to the disability. When it was, the school has to conduct or revise a Functional Behavioral Assessment and update the Behavior Intervention Plan rather than simply impose discipline.¹⁰

If You Disagree With the School

You have options if you disagree with an eligibility decision or the services offered. Disability Rights California publishes a Special Education Rights and Responsibilities manual walking families through evaluation, eligibility, IEP procedures, due process hearings, and compliance complaints.¹²

Disputes do reach administrative hearings. In a 2008 case, a parent challenged the Lakeside Joint Elementary School District’s finding that a student did not qualify. The administrative law judge upheld the district, finding that the student could learn in a regular classroom, maintained relationships with peers and teachers, and that his behavioral issues were not atypical for his age group. The judge emphasized that social maladjustment alone does not establish eligibility.¹³ In a December 2025 Ojai Unified School District case, the student was found eligible under emotional disability after an independent psychoeducational evaluation, and the hearing addressed whether the district also needed to conduct a separate mental health services assessment. The judge ruled that the comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation covering social-emotional needs satisfied the obligation.¹¹

If your child is found not eligible for special education, ask about Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. It uses a broader definition of disability and may still provide accommodations at school.¹⁴ Students found eligible under any IDEA category are entitled to a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.

A Note on Who Gets Identified

Emotional disability is one of the less common special education categories. In California, the 2020 identification rate was 4.1 per 1,000 students.¹⁵ Nationally, about 300,000 students carry the label, roughly 4% of the nearly 8 million children in special education.¹⁶

Identification is uneven. In California in 2023, Black students made up 10% of all students identified with emotional disturbance despite representing only 5% of overall enrollment.¹⁷ Nationally, Black and brown students are disproportionately labeled under the category, while white students with similar behavioral profiles are more often classified under other health impairment or autism, according to experts cited by NPR in April 2026. Researchers have described this category as the most subjective in special education, which helps explain the variation.¹⁶ If you believe your child was placed in the category instead of a better-fitting one, or kept out of it when they belong, that subjectivity is a reason to ask for an independent educational evaluation and to use the dispute resolution process.

1
K-12 Dive. Schools Emotional Disturbance Behaviors Special Education
2
California Legislative Information. AB 2173 Bill Text
3
CAHELP. 13 Disability Categories
4
Cornell Law Institute. 5 CCR 3030
5
U.S. Department of Education. IDEA Sec. 300.8 Child With a Disability
6
Cambridge University Press. Emotional Disturbance Versus Social Maladjustment
7
Riverside County SELPA. Assessment, Identification and Educational Planning for Students With ED
8
California Department of Education. Disability Codes
9
California Department of Education. BIP LEA FAQ
10
Disability Rights South Carolina. Functional Behavior Assessments and Behavior Intervention Plans
11
California OAH. OAH Case Nos. 2025070206 and 2025070706
12
Disability Rights California. Special Education Rights and Responsibilities
13
CaliforniaSpecialEdLaw.com. OAH 2008060329
14
Disability Rights California. Chapter 3: Information on Eligibility Criteria
15
Kidsdata.org. Special Education Disability Prevalence
16
NPR. Why Emotional Disturbance Is a Double-Edged Sword for Students
17
ACLU California Action. State of Black Education 2024 Report Card