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Substitute House Bill No. 5437

Public Act No. 12-136

AN ACT CONCERNING THE DEFINITIONS OF MENTAL RETARDATION AND INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Section 1-1g of the 2012 supplement to the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2012):

(a) For the purposes of sections 17a-210b and 38a-816, "mental retardation" means [a significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period] a significant limitation in intellectual functioning and deficits in adaptive behavior that originated during the developmental period before eighteen years of age.

(b) For the purposes of sections 2c-2b, 4a-60, 4b-28, 4b-31, 8-2g, 8-3e, 8-119t, 9-159s, 10-91f, 12-81, 17a-210, 17a-210b, 17a-215c, 17a-217 to 17a-218a, inclusive, 17a-220, 17a-226 to 17a-227a, inclusive, 17a-228, 17a-231 to 17a-233, inclusive, 17a-247 to 17a-247b, inclusive, 17a-270, 17a-272 to 17a-274, inclusive, 17a-276, 17a-277, 17a-281, 17a-282, 17a-580, 17a-593, 17a-594, 17a-596, 17b-226, 19a-638, 45a-598, 45a-669, 45a-670, 45a-672, 45a-674, 45a-676, 45a-677, 45a-678, 45a-679, 45a-680, 45a-681, 45a-682, 45a-683, 46a-11a to 46a-11g, inclusive, 46a-51, 46a-60, 46a-64, 46a-64b, 46a-66, 46a-70, 46a-71, 46a-72, 46a-73, 46a-75, 46a-76, 46b-84, 52-146o, 53a-46a, 53a-59a, 53a-60b, 53a-60c, 53a-61a, 53a-181i, 53a-320, 53a-321, 53a-322, 53a-323, 54-56d and 54-250, "intellectual disability" shall have the same meaning as "mental retardation" as defined in subsection (a) of this section.

(c) As used in subsection (a) of this section, ["general intellectual functioning" means the results obtained by assessment with one or more of the individually administered general intelligence tests developed for that purpose and standardized on a significantly adequate population and administered by a person or persons formally trained in test administration; "significantly subaverage" means an intelligence quotient more than two standard deviations below the mean for the test; ] "significant limitation in intellectual functioning" means an intelligence quotient more than two standard deviations below the mean as measured by tests of general intellectual functioning that are individualized, standardized and clinically and culturally appropriate to the individual; and "adaptive behavior" means the effectiveness or degree with which an individual meets the standards of personal independence and social responsibility expected for the individual's age and cultural group [; and "developmental period" means the period of time between birth and the eighteenth birthday] as measured by tests that are individualized, standardized and clinically and culturally appropriate to the individual.

Approved June 15, 2012