The number of students served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in the nation’s schools is increasing once again. (Ting Shen/The Dallas Morning News/TNS)
There are a record number of students with disabilities in the nation’s schools.
New data shows that there were 7.5 million children ages 3 to 21 served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act during the 2022-2023 school year, representing 15% of all students. That’s a jump from 7.3 million the previous year and represents the highest number ever recorded.
The figures come from an annual report report known as “Status of Education,” which was recently published by the National Center for Education Statistics of the US Department of Education. The document provides a summary of data on education in the United States.
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Enrollment in special education decreased slightly between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, but grew during the pandemic, the report stated.
By comparison, there were only 6.4 million students with disabilities during the 2012-2013 year, when 13% of schoolchildren received services under IDEA.
Even with the growth, the report notes that special education enrollment varies significantly across states. At the high school level, 21% of students have individualized educational programs, or IEPs, in Pennsylvania, New York and Maine. Meanwhile, only 12% of students in Idaho and Hawaii receive IDEA services. Rates in other states fall somewhere in between.
During the 2022-2023 school year, nearly one-third of special education students had specific learning disabilities, representing the largest proportion. Other common diagnostic categories included speech or language problems, other health problems and 13 percent had autism, the report found.
According to the data, all but 5% of students with disabilities attended regular schools in 2022-2023 and more than two-thirds spent at least 80% of their time in general classes. Of those who dropped out of the school system, 74% graduated with a regular high school diploma.
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