Participation in Education

Elementary/Secondary Enrollment

Table A-9-1. Number and percentage distribution of children and youth ages 3–21 served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B, and number served as a percentage of total public school enrollment, by disability type: Selected school years, 1980–81 through 2009–10

Disability type	1980–81	1990–91	2000–01	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10
	Number served (in thousands)
All disabilities	4,144	4,710	6,296	6,719	6,713	6,686	6,606	6,483	6,481
Specific learning disabilities	1,462	2,129	2,868	2,798	2,735	2,665	2,573	2,476	2,431
Speech or language impairments	1,168	985	1,409	1,463	1,468	1,475	1,456	1,426	1,416
Intellectual disability	830	534	624	578	556	534	500	478	463
Emotional disturbance	347	389	481	489	477	464	442	420	407
Hearing impairments	79	58	78	79	79	80	79	78	79
Orthopedic impairments	58	49	83	73	71	69	67	70	65
Other health impairments	98	55	303	521	570	611	641	659	689
Visual impairments	31	23	29	29	29	29	29	29	29
Multiple disabilities	68	96	133	140	141	142	138	130	131
Deaf-blindness	3	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2
Autism	—	—	94	191	223	258	296	336	378
Traumatic brain injury	—	—	16	24	24	25	25	26	25
Developmental delay	—	—	178	332	339	333	358	354	368
Preschool disabled¹	†	390	†	†	†	†	†	†	†

	Percentage distribution of children served
All disabilities	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Specific learning disabilities	35.3	45.2	45.5	41.6	40.7	39.9	39.0	38.2	37.5
Speech or language impairments	28.2	20.9	22.4	21.8	21.9	22.1	22.0	22.0	21.8
Intellectual disability	20.0	11.3	9.9	8.6	8.3	8.0	7.6	7.4	7.1
Emotional disturbance	8.4	8.3	7.6	7.3	7.1	6.9	6.7	6.5	6.3
Hearing impairments	1.9	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2
Orthopedic impairments	1.4	1.0	1.3	1.1	1.1	1.0	1.0	1.1	1.0
Other health impairments	2.4	1.2	4.8	7.7	8.5	9.1	9.7	10.2	10.6
Visual impairments	0.7	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4
Multiple disabilities	1.6	2.0	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.0	2.0
Deaf-blindness	0.1	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Autism	—	—	1.5	2.8	3.3	3.9	4.5	5.2	5.8
Traumatic brain injury	—	—	0.2	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4
Developmental delay	—	—	2.8	4.9	5.1	5.0	5.4	5.5	5.7
Preschool disabled¹	†	8.3	†	†	†	†	†	†	†

	Number served as a percentage of total public school enrollment²
All disabilities	10.1	11.4	13.3	13.8	13.7	13.6	13.4	13.2	13.1
Specific learning disabilities	3.6	5.2	6.1	5.7	5.6	5.4	5.2	5.0	4.9
Speech or language impairments	2.9	2.4	3.0	3.0	3.0	3.0	3.0	2.9	2.9
Intellectual disability	2.0	1.3	1.3	1.2	1.1	1.1	1.0	1.0	0.9
Emotional disturbance	0.8	0.9	1.0	1.0	1.0	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.8
Hearing impairments	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2
Orthopedic impairments	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Other health impairments	0.2	0.1	0.6	1.1	1.2	1.2	1.3	1.3	1.4
Visual impairments	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Multiple disabilities	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3
Deaf-blindness	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Autism	—	—	0.2	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8
Traumatic brain injury	—	—	#	#	#	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Developmental delay	—	—	0.4	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7
Preschool disabled¹	†	0.9	†	†	†	†	†	†	†

— Not available.
† Not applicable.
# Rounds to zero.
1 In 1980–81, data were collected for preschool-age children ages 3–5 by disability type; those data are combined above with data for children and youth ages 6–21. However, the 1986 Amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act (now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA]) mandated that data not be collected by disability for students ages 3–5. For this reason, data from 1990–91 on preschoolers with disabilities are reported in a separate row. Beginning in 2000–01, states were again required to report data on preschool children by disability.
²Based on the total prekindergarten through 12th-grade enrollment in public schools.
NOTE: Prior to October 1994, children and youth with disabilities were served under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as well as under IDEA, Part B. Data reported in this table for years prior to 1995–96 include children and youth ages 0–21 served under Title I. Includes children and youth in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Bureau of Indian Education schools. Data for 2007–08 and 2008–09 do not include Vermont. In 2006–07, the total number of 3- to 21-year-olds served under IDEA in Vermont was 14,010. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. For more information on student disabilities, see Appendix C – Commonly Used Measures. For more information on the Common Core of Data (CCD), see Appendix B – Guide to Sources.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, selected years, 1980 through 2009; and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) database, retrieved September 14, 2011, from http://www.ideadata.org/PartBdata.asp. National Center for Education Statistics, Statistics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Systems,1980–81; and Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education," selected years, 1990–91 through 2009–10.

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