Table 50.

Children 3 to 21 years old served under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B, by type of disability: Selected years, 1976-77 through 2007-08

Type of disability	1976-77	1980-81	1990-91	1995-96	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-081
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
	Number served (in thousands)
All disabilities	3,694	4,144	4,710	5,572	5,908	6,056	6,195	6,296	6,407	6,523	6,634	6,719	6,713	6,686	6,606
Specific learning disabilities	796	1,462	2,129	2,578	2,727	2,790	2,834	2,868	2,861	2,848	2,831	2,798	2,735	2,665	2,573
Speech or language impairments	1,302	1,168	985	1,022	1,060	1,068	1,080	1,409	1,391	1,412	1,441	1,463	1,468	1,475	1,456
Mental retardation	961	830	534	571	589	597	600	624	616	602	593	578	556	534	500
Emotional disturbance	283	347	389	437	454	462	469	481	483	485	489	489	477	464	442
Hearing impairments	88	79	58	67	69	70	71	78	78	78	79	79	79	80	79
Orthopedic impairments	87	58	49	63	67	69	71	83	83	83	77	73	71	69	67
Other health impairments2	141	98	55	133	190	220	253	303	350	403	464	521	570	611	641
Visual impairments	38	31	23	25	26	26	26	29	28	29	28	29	29	29	29
Multiple disabilities	—	68	96	93	106	106	111	133	136	138	140	140	141	142	138
Deaf-blindness	—	3	1	1	1	2	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Autism	—	—	—	28	42	53	65	94	114	137	163	191	223	258	296
Traumatic brain injury	—	—	—	9	12	13	14	16	22	22	23	24	24	25	25
Developmental delay	—	—	—	—	2	12	19	178	242	283	305	332	339	333	358
Preschool disabled3	†	†	390	544	565	568	581	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†
	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	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Specific learning disabilities	21.5	35.3	45.2	46.3	46.2	46.1	45.7	45.5	44.7	43.7	42.7	41.6	40.7	39.9	39.0
Speech or language impairments	35.2	28.2	20.9	18.3	17.9	17.6	17.4	22.4	21.7	21.6	21.7	21.8	21.9	22.1	22.0
Mental retardation	26.0	20.0	11.3	10.2	10.0	9.9	9.7	9.9	9.6	9.2	8.9	8.6	8.3	8.0	7.6
Emotional disturbance	7.7	8.4	8.3	7.8	7.7	7.6	7.6	7.6	7.5	7.4	7.4	7.3	7.1	6.9	6.7
Hearing impairments	2.4	1.9	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.1	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2
Orthopedic impairments	2.4	1.4	1.0	1.1	1.1	1.1	1.1	1.3	1.3	1.3	1.2	1.1	1.1	1.0	1.0
Other health impairments2	3.8	2.4	1.2	2.4	3.2	3.6	4.1	4.8	5.5	6.2	7.0	7.7	8.5	9.1	9.7
Visual impairments	1.0	0.7	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4
Multiple disabilities	—	1.6	2.0	1.7	1.8	1.8	1.8	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1
Deaf-blindness	—	0.1	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Autism	—	—	—	0.5	0.7	0.9	1.0	1.5	1.8	2.1	2.5	2.8	3.3	3.9	4.5
Traumatic brain injury	—	—	—	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4
Developmental delay	—	—	—	—	0.0	0.2	0.3	2.8	3.8	4.3	4.6	4.9	5.1	5.0	5.4
Preschool disabled3	†	†	8.3	9.8	9.6	9.4	9.4	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†
	Number served as a percent of total enrollment4
All disabilities	8.3	10.1	11.4	12.4	12.8	13.0	13.2	13.3	13.4	13.5	13.7	13.8	13.7	13.6	13.4
Specific learning disabilities	1.8	3.6	5.2	5.8	5.9	6.0	6.0	6.1	6.0	5.9	5.8	5.7	5.6	5.4	5.2
Speech or language impairments	2.9	2.9	2.4	2.3	2.3	2.3	2.3	3.0	2.9	2.9	3.0	3.0	3.0	3.0	3.0
Mental retardation	2.2	2.0	1.3	1.3	1.3	1.3	1.3	1.3	1.3	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.1	1.1	1.0
Emotional disturbance	0.6	0.8	0.9	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	0.9	0.9
Hearing impairments	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2
Orthopedic impairments	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1
Other health impairments2	0.3	0.2	0.1	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	1.0	1.1	1.2	1.2	1.3
Visual impairments	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Multiple disabilities	—	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3
Deaf-blindness	—	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Autism	—	—	—	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.6
Traumatic brain injury	—	—	—	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	0.1	0.1
Developmental delay	—	—	—	—	#	#	#	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7
Preschool disabled3	†	†	0.9	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†

—Not available.

†Not applicable.

#Rounds to zero.

1 Data do not include Vermont, for which 2007-08 data were not available. In 2006-07, the total number of 3- to 21-year-olds served in Vermont was 14,010.

2 Other health impairments include having limited strength, vitality, or alertness due to chronic or acute health problems such as a heart condition, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, nephritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy, lead poisoning, leukemia, or diabetes.

3 Prior to 1990-91 and after 1999-2000, preschool children are included in the counts by disability condition. For other years, preschool children are not included in the counts by disability condition, but are separately reported.

4 Based on the total enrollment in public schools, prekindergarten through 12th grade.

NOTE: Prior to October 1994, children and youth with disabilities were served under Chapter 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as well as under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B. Data reported in this table for years prior to 1994-95 include children ages 0-21 served under Chapter 1. Data are for the 50 states and the District of Columbia only. Increases since 1987-88 are due in part to new legislation enacted in fall 1986, which added a mandate for public school special education services for 3- to 5-year-old disabled children. Some data have been revised from previously published figures. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.

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, 1979 through 2007; and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) database, retrieved April 14, 2009, from http://www.ideadata.org/PartBdata.asp. National Center for Education Statistics, Statistics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Systems, 1977 and 1980; Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education," 1990-91 through 2007–08. (This table was prepared September 2009.)