The number and percentage of children and youth receiving special education services increased nearly every year between 1976-77 and 2004-05. Since 2004-05, the number and percentage of students served declined each year through 2006-07.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), enacted in 1975, mandates that children and youth ages 3-21 with disabilities be provided a free and appropriate public school education. Data collection activities to monitor compliance with IDEA began in 1976.

The number and percentage of children and youth ages 3-21 receiving special education services increased nearly every year since the inception of IDEA up until 2004-05 (see table A-9-1). Since 2004-05, the number and percentage of students served have declined each year through 2006-07. In 1976-77, some 3.7 million children and youth were served under IDEA, representing 5 percent of all children and youth ages 3-21. By 2006-07, some 6.7 million children and youth received IDEA services, corresponding to about 9 percent of all children and youth ages 3-21. Among students served under IDEA in 2006-07, about 59 percent were White, 20 percent were Black, 17 percent were Hispanic, 2 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander, and 1 percent were American Indian/Alaska Native (data not shown).

Since 1980-81, a larger percentage of children and youth ages 3-21 have received special education services for specific learning disabilities than for any other disability type (see table A-9-2). A specific learning disability is a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. These disorders include conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The percentage of children and youth ages 3-21 receiving special education services for a specific learning disability was 3 percentage points higher in 2006-07 than in 1976-77 (5 vs. 2 percent). In comparison, the next most prevalent disability type, speech or language impairments, remained fairly constant around 3 percent, with variations of less than 1 percentage point during this period.

In 2006-07, about 40 percent of all children and youth receiving services under IDEA had specific learning disabilities, and 22 percent had speech or language impairments. Students with disabilities such as other health impairments, mental retardation, emotional disturbances, developmental delay, and autism accounted for between 4 and 10 percent each. Children and youth with multiple disabilities; hearing, orthopedic, and visual impairments; traumatic brain injury; and deaf-blindness each accounted for less than 2 percent of children with disabilities.

Technical Notes

Special education services through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) are available for eligible children and youth identified by a team of qualified professionals as having a disability that adversely affects their academic performance and as being in need of special education and related services. The estimates include children and youth receiving special education services through IDEA in early education centers and public schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia and in Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools through 1993-94. Beginning in 1994-95, numbers and percentages exclude BIE schools. For more information about the student disabilities presented here, see supplemental note 7. The four race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. For more information on race/ethnicity, see supplemental note 1.