Table 204.50.

Children 3 to 21 years old served under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B, by age group and sex, race/ethnicity, and type of disability: 2015-16

Type of disability	Total1	3 to 5 years old2		6 to 21 years old2		Total, 3 to 21 years old
		Male	Female	Male	Female	White	Black	Hispanic	Asian	Pacific Islander	American Indian/ Alaska Native	Two or more races
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
	Number of children served
All disabilities	6,676,974	521,015	225,534	3,905,232	1,967,647	3,366,701	1,208,510	1,602,140	167,263	20,408	87,870	224,911
Autism	617,298	—	—	458,800	86,398	334,442	87,291	130,704	35,044	1,587	4,782	23,488
Deaf-blindness	1,418	—	—	662	593	796	175	315	55	4	21	53
Developmental delay	433,722	—	—	104,425	44,244	226,710	80,527	84,841	13,207	1,516	8,684	18,258
Emotional disturbance	347,344	—	—	248,666	90,333	181,062	86,149	55,474	3,330	878	4,718	15,738
Hearing impairment	75,458	—	—	35,338	30,911	34,936	10,470	22,323	4,234	405	814	2,284
Intellectual disability	425,475	—	—	233,738	168,130	185,425	110,795	100,122	10,886	1,403	5,381	11,479
Multiple disabilities	131,410	—	—	76,379	47,132	72,961	23,194	24,508	4,361	594	1,978	3,886
Orthopedic impairment	46,563	—	—	23,589	16,640	24,006	5,840	12,738	2,101	137	373	1,370
Other health impairment3	909,449	—	—	630,638	255,754	529,308	166,191	154,894	13,214	2,291	10,167	33,401
Specific learning disability	2,298,163	—	—	1,383,804	871,473	1,033,621	450,750	668,064	35,111	8,768	35,271	67,183
Speech or language impairment	1,337,051	—	—	679,772	335,946	713,429	178,906	337,263	43,878	2,647	14,969	45,993
Traumatic brain injury	26,535	—	—	16,053	9,211	15,512	4,134	4,855	670	81	359	925
Visual impairment	27,088	—	—	13,368	10,882	14,493	4,088	6,039	1,172	97	353	853
	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
Autism	9.2	—	—	11.7	4.4	9.9	7.2	8.2	21.0	7.8	5.4	10.4
Deaf-blindness	#	—	—	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Developmental delay	6.5	—	—	2.7	2.2	6.7	6.7	5.3	7.9	7.4	9.9	8.1
Emotional disturbance	5.2	—	—	6.4	4.6	5.4	7.1	3.5	2.0	4.3	5.4	7.0
Hearing impairment	1.1	—	—	0.9	1.6	1.0	0.9	1.4	2.5	2.0	0.9	1.0
Intellectual disability	6.4	—	—	6.0	8.5	5.5	9.2	6.2	6.5	6.9	6.1	5.1
Multiple disabilities	2.0	—	—	2.0	2.4	2.2	1.9	1.5	2.6	2.9	2.3	1.7
Orthopedic impairment	0.7	—	—	0.6	0.8	0.7	0.5	0.8	1.3	0.7	0.4	0.6
Other health impairment3	13.6	—	—	16.1	13.0	15.7	13.8	9.7	7.9	11.2	11.6	14.9
Specific learning disability	34.4	—	—	35.4	44.3	30.7	37.3	41.7	21.0	43.0	40.1	29.9
Speech or language impairment	20.0	—	—	17.4	17.1	21.2	14.8	21.1	26.2	13.0	17.0	20.4
Traumatic brain injury	0.4	—	—	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4
Visual impairment	0.4	—	—	0.3	0.6	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.7	0.5	0.4	0.4
	Number served as a percent of total enrollment4
All disabilities	13.2	19.4	9.3	16.9	8.9	13.7	15.5	12.2	6.6	11.6	17.2	13.0
Autism	1.2	—	—	2.0	0.4	1.4	1.1	1.0	1.4	0.9	0.9	1.4
Deaf-blindness	#	—	—	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Developmental delay	0.9	—	—	0.5	0.2	0.9	1.0	0.6	0.5	0.9	1.7	1.1
Emotional disturbance	0.7	—	—	1.1	0.4	0.7	1.1	0.4	0.1	0.5	0.9	0.9
Hearing impairment	0.1	—	—	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1
Intellectual disability	0.8	—	—	1.0	0.8	0.8	1.4	0.8	0.4	0.8	1.1	0.7
Multiple disabilities	0.3	—	—	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.2
Orthopedic impairment	0.1	—	—	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Other health impairment3	1.8	—	—	2.7	1.2	2.1	2.1	1.2	0.5	1.3	2.0	1.9
Specific learning disability	4.6	—	—	6.0	4.0	4.2	5.8	5.1	1.4	5.0	6.9	3.9
Speech or language impairment	2.7	—	—	2.9	1.5	2.9	2.3	2.6	1.7	1.5	2.9	2.7
Traumatic brain injury	0.1	—	—	0.1	#	0.1	0.1	#	#	#	0.1	0.1
Visual impairment	0.1	—	—	0.1	#	0.1	0.1	#	#	0.1	0.1	#

—Not available.

#Rounds to zero.

1 Totals are based on overall counts of children by type of disability; they are not based on summing the counts reported for the individual racial/ethnic groups or the counts reported by sex. (Due to data limitations, summing the counts by disability type within each racial/ethnic group would result in a total overcount of 829 children. Because of missing data on type of disability by sex, summing the counts by disability type for males and females would result in undercounts.)

2 For 3- to 5-year-olds, no data are available on type of disability by sex. For 6- to 21-year-olds, data include only those children served for whom both sex and type of disability were reported. About 1 percent of all 6- to 21-year-olds served are excluded from this table because of missing data.

3 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.

4 Percentages for students 3 to 5 years old by sex are based on total public school enrollment in prekindergarten and kindergarten by sex. Percentages for students 6 to 21 years old by sex are based on total public school enrollment in grades 1 through 12 by sex. Percentages for students of all ages (3 to 21 years old) by race/ethnicity are based on total enrollment in public schools, prekindergarten through grade 12, by race/ethnicity. For total enrollment in public schools by race/ethnicity, see table 203.50.

NOTE: Although data are for the 50 states and the District of Columbia, data limitations result in inclusion of a small (but unknown) number of students from other jurisdictions. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) database, retrieved July 10, 2017, from http://www2.ed.gov/programs/osepidea/618-data/state-level-data-files/index.html#bcc; and National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education," 2015-16. (This table was prepared July 2017.)