special needs
plural nounDefinition of special needs
: any of various difficulties (such as a physical, emotional, behavioral, or learning disability or impairment) that causes an individual to require additional or specialized services or accommodations (such as in education or recreation)
students with special needs
Keep scrolling for more
Examples of special needs in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
During the emergency, the county’s citizens information line answered 2,846 calls and called 1,549 people with special needs to coordinate sheltering, according to the county. — Jerry Fallstrom, orlandosentinel.com, "Hurricane Dorian: Lake County emergency shelters to close, schools to reopen Thursday," 4 Sep. 2019 Desiree Rios for The New York Times Jacquelynn Vance-Pauls, a real-estate lawyer in upstate New York, has a 14-year-old son with autism who was recently kicked out of his private special needs school. — Sharon Otterman, New York Times, "Get Vaccinated or Leave School: 26,000 N.Y. Children Face a Choice," 3 Sep. 2019 Broward County opened four special needs shelters on Sunday. — Anthony Man, sun-sentinel.com, "Broward County opens three storm shelters as Hurricane Dorian remains off coast," 2 Sep. 2019 Nettleton leaves behind King, a four-year-old son who was born prematurely and has special needs. — oregonlive, "Family mourns Logan Nettleton, 19, shot and killed in Southeast Portland," 31 Aug. 2019 And that division might be special needs, might be adoption, who knows? — Meghan Dunn, CNN, "Inside the country's largest sanctuary for abused and neglected donkeys," 30 Aug. 2019 Moskowitz teaches kindergarteners with special needs at Carl Sandburg Learning Center in Rockville, Maryland, half an hour outside of Washington. — Max Cohen, USA TODAY, "'Ridiculous': Teachers spend their own money to buy supplies for first day of school," 29 Aug. 2019 His wife landed a steady job at a home for adults with special needs, and the couple soon had three children. — Michael Rezendes, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Milwaukee Franciscan leader paid off Mississippi men in friar's sex abuse," 27 Aug. 2019 Collin previously spent a little over two years living away from his family in a program for children with special needs. — Aurelie Corinthios, PEOPLE.com, "Jon Gosselin Posts Photo of Collin and Hannah on First Day of High School: 'Can't Believe It'," 26 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'special needs.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Keep scrolling for more
Keep scrolling for more