Prevalence of Students in Special Education - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Prevalence of Students in Special Education

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS

• Prevalence-The TOTAL number of individuals with a particular disability currently existing in the population at a given time.
• Prevalence is expressed as a percentage of the population exhibiting a specific exceptionality.
• e.g., if the prevalence of learning disabilities is estimated at 5% of the school age population, then we can reasonably assume that 5 out of every 100 students evidence a learning disability.

• According to the US Dept of Education, approximately six million U.S. students (5,541, 166) between 6 and 21 years of age receive special education services

• # of Children Percentage of Total
• LD 2,817, 148 50.84%
• Spch
• & Lang 1,074, 548 19.39%
• MR 611,076 11.02
• ED 463,262 8.36

• OHI 220,831 3.98
• Mult Disab 107,763 1.94
• Hear Imp 70, 883 1.27
• Orthop Imp 69, 495 1.25
• VI, Aut, DB --- 1.5
• TBI, DD

• # of children has grown every year since a national count was begun in the 1976-1977 school year
• Children with disabilities in special education represent approximately 9.0% of all children in school
• Approximately 90% of all children and youth receiving special education are reported under 4 categories (1) LD; (2) S & L (3) MR & (4) ED

• In the general education population, males and females are enrolled in equal proportion
• About twice as many males as females receive special education

• What about children birth through 5 years of age? IDEA addresses their needs in a separate section of the law.
• In the general population, 206,000, or about 2%, of U. S. infants and toddlers (birth to 36 months) receive early intervention services
• And almost 590,000 preschool children (ages 3 through 5 years), or approximately 5% of the U.S. preschool population, received early childhood services.