Image via WikipediaTime for some statistics, or as we used to say in the old neighborhood, "satistics." The National Center for Educational Statistics, an arm of the United States Department of Education, has released its annual report, "The Condition of Education 2011." It is huge. If you like data, and educators collect all kinds of data, this report is for you
You can read the entire report or sections here. Please take a look. Thanks to our friends at NICHCY, the national clearinghouse for special ed information for the heads up about the report. The document has stats about education of all kinds not just special ed. Here are some highlights:
The number of kids receiving special education in 2008-2009 was 6.5 million, about 13.2% of all public school kids. I know that the next sentence is going to cause my buddy, Dr Data, to send me an email, but the percentage has decreased ever so slightly each school year since 2004-2005 when it was 13.8% of all children in school.
The LRE numbers are also interesting. In 2008-2009, the 5 of special ed kids in the general education environment at least 80% of the time is 58%. Those in gen ed 40-79 % are 21.7%. Those in gen ed 40% of the time or less are 15.1%. 3% are in separate schools. See Table A-7-2 for more LRE data, or to compare across school years or by categories of disability.
Reproduced below is Table A-7-1 which shows the number and percentage of 3 to 21 year olds served under IDEA by type of disability:
| Table A-7-1. Number and percentage distribution of 3- to 21-year-olds served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B, and number served as a percentage of total public school enrollment, by type of disability: Selected school years, 1980–81 through 2008–09—Continued | |||||||||
| Type of disability | 1980–81 | 1990–91 | 1995–96 | 2000–01 | 2004–05 | 2005–06 | 2006–07 | 2007–08 | 2008–09 |
| Number served as a percentage of total public school enrollment2 | |||||||||
| All disabilities | 10.1 | 11.4 | 12.4 | 13.3 | 13.8 | 13.7 | 13.6 | 13.4 | 13.2 |
| Specific learning disabilities | 3.6 | 5.2 | 5.8 | 6.1 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 5.4 | 5.2 | 5.0 |
| Speech or language impairments | 2.9 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.9 |
| Intellectual disability | 2.0 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Emotional disturbance | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Hearing impairments | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Orthopedic impairments | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Other health impairments | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| Visual impairments | 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 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Deaf-blindness | # | # | # | # | # | # | # | # | # |
| Autism | — | — | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.7 |
| Traumatic brain injury | — | — | # | # | # | # | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Developmental delay | — | — | — | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Preschool disabled1 | † | 0.9 | 1.2 | † | † | † | † | † | † |
