Student Program Participation and Selected Characteristics

Nationally, 13 percent of public school students had a Special Education individualized education program (IEP) in 2001-02 (table 10). Among those states reporting students with IEPs, the proportion ranged from 10 percent in Colorado to 20 percent in Rhode Island.

Some 47 states (including the District of Columbia) reported the number of students who were English language learners (ELL) and receiving English language services. In California, there were 1.5 million ELL service recipients (one-fourth of all students) in 2001-02, while Texas reported more than half a million (one in seven students) receiving ELL services.

Forty-one states (including the District of Columbia) provided information about the number of migrant students enrolled during the 2000-01 school year or the following summer. Because a single migrant student may enroll in several schools during the year, this is a duplicated count of students. Therefore, table 10 cannot estimate the proportion of students who were migrants. California reported the greatest number of migrant students served when regular school year and summer program participants were combined, almost 331,000.

All but four states reported the number of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. More than half of all students were eligible for this program in the District of Columbia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and West Virginia. The largest numbers of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals were in California, Texas, and New York, with 2.9, 1.9, and 1.2 million eligible students, respectively.

Table 11 shows the distribution of minority students (all groups except White, not Hispanic; see Key Terms) across cities, urban fringe areas, and small towns or rural communities in 2001-02. Across the United States, about 39 percent of public school students were members of minority groups. Sixty-three percent of students in large or midsize city schools were minority students, while only 21 percent of students in small town and rural schools were. In the large or midsize city schools of nine states and the District of Columbia, three-fourths or more of students were minority group members. The proportion was highest in the District of Columbia, in which 87 percent of students were minority members. Small town and rural schools tended to have smaller proportions of minority students, but this was not the case for all states. In the small town and rural schools of Arizona, Hawaii, Mississippi, and New Mexico, half or more of the students were minority group members. (The District of Columbia is not included in this list because it operates only a single school outside the District's boundaries.)