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 2020-21

Type of disability	1976-77	1980-81	1990-91	2000-01	2008-091	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-172,3	2017-182,4	2018-192	2019-202,5	2020-215,6
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
	Number of children served (in thousands)
All disabilities	3,694	4,144	4,710	6,296	6,483	6,481	6,436	6,401	6,429	6,464	6,555	6,677	6,802	6,964	7,134	7,282	7,183
Autism	---	---	---	93	336	378	417	455	498	538	576	617	661	710	762	803	828
Deaf-blindness	---	3	1	1	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2
Developmental delay7	---	---	---	213	354	368	382	393	402	410	419	434	446	461	479	502	487
Emotional disturbance	283	347	389	480	420	407	390	373	362	354	349	347	348	353	358	365	353
Hearing impairment	88	79	58	77	78	79	78	78	77	77	76	75	75	75	74	73	72
Intellectual disability	961	830	534	624	478	463	448	435	430	425	423	425	431	436	439	442	429
Multiple disabilities	---	68	96	131	130	131	130	132	133	132	132	131	132	132	133	133	128
Orthopedic impairment	87	58	49	82	70	65	63	61	59	56	52	47	42	41	39	37	35
Other health impairment8	141	98	55	303	659	689	716	743	779	817	862	909	955	1,002	1,049	1,094	1,096
Preschool disabled9	†	†	390	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†
Specific learning disability	796	1,462	2,129	2,860	2,476	2,431	2,361	2,303	2,277	2,264	2,278	2,298	2,318	2,342	2,368	2,405	2,346
Speech or language impairment	1,302	1,168	985	1,388	1,426	1,416	1,396	1,373	1,356	1,334	1,332	1,337	1,337	1,357	1,378	1,374	1,357
Traumatic brain injury	---	---	---	16	26	25	26	26	26	26	26	27	27	27	27	27	25
Visual impairment	38	31	23	29	29	29	28	28	28	28	28	27	27	27	27	27	26
	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	100.0	100.0
Autism	---	---	---	1.5	5.2	5.8	6.5	7.1	7.8	8.3	8.8	9.2	9.7	10.2	10.7	11.0	11.5
Deaf-blindness	---	0.1	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Developmental delay7	---	---	---	3.4	5.5	5.7	5.9	6.1	6.2	6.3	6.4	6.5	6.6	6.6	6.7	6.9	6.8
Emotional disturbance	7.7	8.4	8.3	7.6	6.5	6.3	6.1	5.8	5.6	5.5	5.3	5.2	5.1	5.1	5.0	5.0	4.9
Hearing impairment	2.4	1.9	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.1	1.1	1.1	1.0	1.0	1.0
Intellectual disability	26.0	20.0	11.3	9.9	7.4	7.1	7.0	6.8	6.7	6.6	6.4	6.4	6.3	6.3	6.2	6.1	6.0
Multiple disabilities	---	1.6	2.0	2.1	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.1	2.1	2.0	2.0	2.0	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.8	1.8
Orthopedic impairment	2.4	1.4	1.0	1.3	1.1	1.0	1.0	1.0	0.9	0.9	0.8	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5
Other health impairment8	3.8	2.4	1.2	4.8	10.2	10.6	11.1	11.6	12.1	12.6	13.2	13.6	14.0	14.4	14.7	15.0	15.3
Preschool disabled9	†	†	8.3	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†
Specific learning disability	21.5	35.3	45.2	45.4	38.2	37.5	36.7	36.0	35.4	35.0	34.8	34.4	34.1	33.6	33.2	33.0	32.7
Speech or language impairment	35.2	28.2	20.9	22.0	22.0	21.8	21.7	21.4	21.1	20.6	20.3	20.0	19.7	19.5	19.3	18.9	18.9
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	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	0.4	0.4
	Number of children served as a percent of total enrollment10
All disabilities	8.3	10.1	11.4	13.3	13.2	13.1	13.0	12.9	12.9	12.9	13.0	13.2	13.4	13.7	14.1	14.3	14.5
Autism	---	---	---	0.2	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.9	1.0	1.1	1.1	1.2	1.3	1.4	1.5	1.6	1.7
Deaf-blindness	---	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Developmental delay7	---	---	---	0.5	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.9	1.0	1.0
Emotional disturbance	0.6	0.8	0.9	1.0	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	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	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Intellectual disability	2.2	2.0	1.3	1.3	1.0	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.9	0.9	0.9	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	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	0.1	0.1
Other health impairment8	0.3	0.2	0.1	0.6	1.3	1.4	1.4	1.5	1.6	1.6	1.7	1.8	1.9	2.0	2.1	2.2	2.2
Preschool disabled9	†	†	0.9	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†
Specific learning disability	1.8	3.6	5.2	6.1	5.0	4.9	4.8	4.7	4.6	4.5	4.5	4.6	4.6	4.6	4.7	4.7	4.8
Speech or language impairment	2.9	2.9	2.4	2.9	2.9	2.9	2.8	2.8	2.7	2.7	2.6	2.7	2.6	2.7	2.7	2.7	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	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	0.1	0.1

---Not available.

†Not applicable.

#Rounds to zero.

1Data 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.

2Data in the 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20 columns include 2015-16 data for 3- to 21-year-olds in Wisconsin because 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20 data were not available for children served in Wisconsin.

3Data 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.

4Data 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.

5Data by disability type for Iowa are imputed based on the reported 2018-19 percentage distribution by disability type applied to the 2019-20 and 2020-21 total number of children served in Iowa.

6Data in the 2020-21 column include 2019-20 data instead of 2020-21 data for 5- to 21-year-olds in Louisiana because 2020-21 data were not available for children in that age group served in Louisiana.

7Although federal law does not require that states/entities and local education agencies categorize children according to developmental delay, if this category is required by state law, they are expected to report these children in the developmental delay category.

8Other 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.

9For 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.

10Based on total public school enrollment in prekindergarten through grade 12. For total public school enrollment, see table 203.20.

NOTE: Data in this table represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 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. 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 February 25, 2022, from https://data.ed.gov/dataset/idea-section-618-data-products. 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 2019-20 and 2020-21 Preliminary. (This table was prepared February 2022.)