Table 204.30.

Children 3 to 21 years old served under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B, by type of disability: Selected years, 1976-77 through 2017-18

Type of disability	1976-77	1980-81	1990-91	2000-01	2007-081	2008-091	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-172,3	2017-182,4
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
	Number of children served (in thousands)
All disabilities	3,694	4,144	4,710	6,296	6,597	6,483	6,481	6,436	6,401	6,429	6,464	6,555	6,677	6,802	6,964
Autism	—	—	—	93	296	336	378	417	455	498	538	576	617	661	710
Deaf-blindness	—	3	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1
Developmental delay	—	—	—	213	357	354	368	382	393	402	410	419	434	446	461
Emotional disturbance	283	347	389	480	442	420	407	390	373	362	354	349	347	348	353
Hearing impairment	88	79	58	77	79	78	79	78	78	77	77	76	75	75	75
Intellectual disability	961	830	534	624	500	478	463	448	435	430	425	423	425	431	436
Multiple disabilities	—	68	96	131	138	130	131	130	132	133	132	132	131	132	132
Orthopedic impairment	87	58	49	82	67	70	65	63	61	59	56	52	47	42	41
Other health impairment5	141	98	55	303	641	659	689	716	743	779	817	862	909	955	1,002
Preschool disabled6	†	†	390	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†
Specific learning disability	796	1,462	2,129	2,860	2,569	2,476	2,431	2,361	2,303	2,277	2,264	2,278	2,298	2,318	2,342
Speech or language impairment	1,302	1,168	985	1,388	1,454	1,426	1,416	1,396	1,373	1,356	1,334	1,332	1,337	1,337	1,357
Traumatic brain injury	—	—	—	16	25	26	25	26	26	26	26	26	27	27	27
Visual impairment	38	31	23	29	29	29	29	28	28	28	28	28	27	27	27
	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
Autism	—	—	—	1.5	4.5	5.2	5.8	6.5	7.1	7.8	8.3	8.8	9.2	9.7	10.2
Deaf-blindness	—	0.1	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Developmental delay	—	—	—	3.4	5.4	5.5	5.7	5.9	6.1	6.2	6.3	6.4	6.5	6.6	6.6
Emotional disturbance	7.7	8.4	8.3	7.6	6.7	6.5	6.3	6.1	5.8	5.6	5.5	5.3	5.2	5.1	5.1
Hearing impairment	2.4	1.9	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.1	1.1	1.1
Intellectual disability	26.0	20.0	11.3	9.9	7.6	7.4	7.1	7.0	6.8	6.7	6.6	6.4	6.4	6.3	6.3
Multiple disabilities	—	1.6	2.0	2.1	2.1	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.1	2.1	2.0	2.0	2.0	1.9	1.9
Orthopedic impairment	2.4	1.4	1.0	1.3	1.0	1.1	1.0	1.0	1.0	0.9	0.9	0.8	0.7	0.6	0.6
Other health impairment5	3.8	2.4	1.2	4.8	9.7	10.2	10.6	11.1	11.6	12.1	12.6	13.2	13.6	14.0	14.4
Preschool disabled6	†	†	8.3	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†
Specific learning disability	21.5	35.3	45.2	45.4	38.9	38.2	37.5	36.7	36.0	35.4	35.0	34.8	34.4	34.1	33.6
Speech or language impairment	35.2	28.2	20.9	22.0	22.0	22.0	21.8	21.7	21.4	21.1	20.6	20.3	20.0	19.7	19.5
Traumatic brain injury	—	—	—	0.2	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4
Visual impairment	1.0	0.7	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4
	Number of children served as a percent of total enrollment7
All disabilities	8.3	10.1	11.4	13.3	13.4	13.2	13.1	13.0	12.9	12.9	12.9	13.0	13.2	13.4	13.7
Autism	—	—	—	0.2	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.9	1.0	1.1	1.1	1.2	1.3	1.4
Deaf-blindness	—	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Developmental delay	—	—	—	0.5	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.9	0.9	0.9
Emotional disturbance	0.6	0.8	0.9	1.0	0.9	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7
Hearing impairment	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1
Intellectual disability	2.2	2.0	1.3	1.3	1.0	1.0	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.9	0.9
Multiple disabilities	—	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3
Orthopedic impairment	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Other health impairment5	0.3	0.2	0.1	0.6	1.3	1.3	1.4	1.4	1.5	1.6	1.6	1.7	1.8	1.9	2.0
Preschool disabled6	†	†	0.9	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†
Specific learning disability	1.8	3.6	5.2	6.1	5.2	5.0	4.9	4.8	4.7	4.6	4.5	4.5	4.6	4.6	4.6
Speech or language impairment	2.9	2.9	2.4	2.9	2.9	2.9	2.9	2.8	2.8	2.7	2.7	2.6	2.7	2.6	2.7
Traumatic brain injury	—	—	—	#	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	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	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1

—Not available.

†Not applicable.

#Rounds to zero.

1 Data do not include Vermont, for which 2007-08 and 2008-09 data were not available. In 2006-07, the total number of 3- to 21-year-olds served in Vermont was 14,010.

2 Data in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 columns include 2015-16 data for 3- to 21-year-olds in Wisconsin because 2016-17 and 2017-18 data were not available for children served in Wisconsin.

3 Data in the 2016-17 column include 2015-16 data for 3- to 5-year-olds in Nebraska because 2016-17 data were not available for children in that age group served in Nebraska.

4 Data in the 2017-18 column include 2016-17 data for 3- to 5-year-olds in Minnesota and 6- to 21-year-olds in Maine and Vermont because 2017-18 data were not available for children in those age groups served in those states.

5 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.

6 For 1990-91, preschool children are not included in the counts by disability condition but are separately reported. For other years, preschool children are included in the counts by disability condition.

7 Based on total public school enrollment in prekindergarten through grade 12. For total public school enrollment, see table 203.20.

NOTE: Prior to October 1994, children and youth with disabilities were served under Chapter 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) 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 of ESEA. 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 children with disabilities. 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 2006; and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) database, retrieved December 21, 2018, from https://www2.ed.gov/programs/osepidea/618-data/state-level-data-files/index.html#bcc. National Center for Education Statistics, Statistics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Systems, 1977-78 and 1980-81; Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education," 1990-91 through 2017–18; and National Elementary and Secondary Enrollment Projection Model, 1972 through 2028. (This table was prepared December 2018.)