A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

To Assure the Free Appropriate Public Education of All Children with Disabilities - 1996

Educational Placements for Students with Disabilities

OSEP uses several approaches to promote appropriate placements for students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment, including funded research, technical assistance, targeted grant awards for statewide systems change, and compliance monitoring. To examine State and national trends in educational placements for students with disabilities, each year OSEP collects data from States and Outlying Areas on the number of students with disabilities served in each of six different educational environments: regular class, resource room, separate class, public or private separate school, public or private residential facility, and homebound/hospital placements. The data are collected by age group for students ages 3-21. Data for students ages 6-21 are collected by disability.

The purpose of this data collection is to describe how States and the nation are meeting the LRE mandate as expressed in IDEA and its implementing regulations. During the past several years, the percentage of students with disabilities served in regular classes has increased considerably, while the percentage of students in resource rooms has gradually decreased (see figure 3.1). Other placement percentages have remained stable. During the past 5 years, not only have States and local school districts worked to meet the needs of students with disabilities within the general education classroom, but they have also improved their data collection and reporting procedures. As a result, for 1993-94, States reported serving 43.4 percent of students with disabilities ages 6-21 in regular classroom placements, 29.5 percent in resource rooms, 22.7 percent in separate classes, 3.1 percent in separate schools, 0.7 percent in residential facilities, and 0.6 percent in homebound/hospital placements.

FIGURE 3.1 Percentage of Students with Disabilities Ages 6-21 Served in Different Educational Environments: 1989-90 to 1993-94

      YEAR   -------- 1989-90       Regular Class =================>
      Resource Room ==============>
     Separate Class ================>
  Separate Facility ==>
                    +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+                     0          20         40         60         80         100                         Percentage of Students in Different Environments  1990-91       Regular Class ================>
      Resource Room ===================>
     Separate Class =================>
  Separate Facility ==>
                    +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+                     0          20         40         60         80         100                         Percentage of Students in Different Environments  1991-92       Regular Class ==================>
      Resource Room ===================>
     Separate Class ================>
  Separate Facility ==>
                    +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+                     0          20         40         60         80         100                         Percentage of Students in Different Environments  1992-93       Regular Class ======================>
      Resource Room =================>
     Separate Class ================>
  Separate Facility ==>
                    +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+                     0          20         40         60         80         100                         Percentage of Students in Different Environments  1993-94       Regular Class =========================>
      Resource Room ====================>
     Separate Class ===============>
  Separate Facility =>
                    +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+                     0          20         40         60         80         100                         Percentage of Students in Different Environments  SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs,          Data Analysis System (DANS).

Placement Patterns by Age

States report a tendency to serve a larger percentage of students with disabilities ages 6-11 in regular classrooms; that percentage decreases for students ages 12-17 and 18-21 (see table 3.2 for the percentage in regular classrooms and table 3.3 for the continuum of educational placements). This pattern holds across the disability groups. The only exception is for students with learning disabilities. In that case, the percentage of students ages 18-21 in regular class placements is larger than the percentage of students ages 12-17 in regular class placements. Field-based research confirms that efforts to integrate younger students have generally been more successful than efforts with older students. This may be attributed, in part, to the departmentalized structure of secondary schools, the academic demands of the secondary curriculum, or the competitive culture that exists in many secondary schools. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of elementary school students with disabilities have speech or language impairments, which are often addressed in regular classes or resource rooms; many of these students do not require special education and related services in secondary school.

TABLE 3.2 Percentage of Children in Regular Class Settings Under IDEA, Part B, and Chapter 1 of ESEA, During the 1993-94 School Year by Age Group
                                             Regular Class Settings                                       -------------------------      Disability                        6-11     12-17     18-21      ==========                       =====     =====     =====      Specific learning disabilities   40.88     37.98     40.29      Speech or language impairments   89.01     77.20     65.35      Mental retardation               10.75      7.35      6.14      Serious emotional disturbance    21.98     19.65     19.42      Multiple disabilities            11.35      7.49      4.06      Hearing impairments              32.56     30.30     19.08      Orthopedic impairments           39.30     37.49     21.94      Other health impairments         42.93     37.84     26.45      Visual impairments               47.00     45.77     28.44      Autism                           10.85      9.12      4.18      Deaf-blindness                   11.24      7.13      1.98      Traumatic brain injury           23.68     22.51     17.52      ----------------------------------------------------------      Total                            48.78     33.29     26.59

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Data Analysis System (DANS).

TABLE 3.3 Educational Environments for Students with Disabilities

Regular class includes students who receive the majority of their education program in a regular classroom and receive special education and related services outside the regular classroom for less than 21 percent of the school day.

Resource room includes students who receive special education and related services outside of the regular classroom for at least 21 percent but no more than 60 percent of the school day.

Separate class includes students who receive special education and related services outside the regular class for more than 60 percent of the school day.

Separate school includes students who receive special education and related services in a public or private separate day school for students with disabilities, at public expense, for more than 50 percent of the school day.

Residential facility includes students who receive special education in a public or private residential facility, at public expense, for more than 50 percent of the school day.

Homebound/hospital environment includes students placed in and receiving special education in a hospital or homebound program.

SOURCE: OSEP Data Dictionary, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education.

A relatively large percentage of students ages 18-21 are served in separate classes and schools (see table 3.4). Because general education students typically graduate at age 18, students with disabilities ages 18-21 who are still in school do not have same-age peers with whom to interact. Some educators assert that the most natural environments for these students are colleges and universities, work sites, postsecondary vocational training programs, or community-based instructional settings other than secondary schools.

TABLE 3.4 Percentage of Students with Disabilities Served in Different Educational Environments by Age Group: 1993-94
                                       Age Group                                  ---------------------      Educational Environments    6-11   12-17    18-21       ========================    ====   =====    =====      Regular class               53.5    33.3     26.6      Resource room               24.8    35.1     28.1      Separate class              19.3    25.9     30.8      Separate school              1.9     3.7     10.3      Residential facility         0.3     1.1      2.9      Homebound/hospital           0.3     0.8      1.3
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Data Analysis System (DANS).

Placement Patterns by Disability

Placement patterns also vary considerably by disability (see table 3.5). The majority of students with speech and language impairments (87.5 percent) are served in regular classes, and an additional 7.6 percent are served in resource rooms. Students with speech and language impairments are more likely than students with any other disability to spend the majority of their day with peers who do not have disabilities.

TABLE 3.5 Percentage of Students with Disabilities Ages 6-21 Served in Different Educational Environments, by Disability: School Year 1993-94
                                                                                                            Residen-  Home-                    Regular  Resource  Separate Separate  tial     bound/  Disability         Class    Room      Class    School   Facil.  Hospital ==========         =====    ====      =====    ======   =====   ======== Specific learning  disabilities        39.3    41.0       18.8      0.6     0.1      0.1  Speech or language impairments         87.5     7.6        4.5      0.3     0.04     0.05  Mental retardation   8.6    26.1       57.0      7.0     0.7      0.5  Serious emotional disturbance         20.5    25.8       35.3     13.4     3.2      1.8  Multiple  disabilities         9.1    19.8       44.1     21.8     3.2      2.0  Hearing impairments 30.6    20.0       30.6      7.0    11.6      0.2  Orthopedic  impairments         37.4    20.7       33.3      5.3     0.5      2.9  Other health impairments         40.0    27.0       21.3      1.8     0.4      9.4  Visual impairments  45.2    21.3       18.3      4.1    10.6      0.5  Autism               9.6     8.1       54.5     23.4     3.9      0.5  Deaf-blindness       7.7     8.0       34.6     24.3    23.2      2.2  Traumatic brain  injury              22.3    23.5       30.2     18.3     2.6      3.0 --------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. and Outlying Areas               43.4    29.5       22.7      3.1     0.7      0.6  50 States, D.C., & P.R.              43.4    29.4       22.7      3.1     0.7      0.6
SOURCE: Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Data Analysis Systems (DANS).

Students with learning disabilities, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, serious emotional disturbance, and traumatic brain injury are generally placed within the regular school building, but then students are spread across regular classes, resource rooms, and separate classes. It is likely that many of these students spend a portion of their day in classes with peers who do not have disabilities, but are "pulled out" for extended resource room support or alternative academic courses.

Separate classroom placements are most prevalent for students with mental retardation (57.0 percent), autism (54.5 percent), and multiple disabilities (44.1 percent), although resource room placements are also commonly used to serve students with mental retardation and multiple disabilities. By definition, those in separate classroom placements may spend up to 40 percent of the school day in a regular classroom.

This section has presented data on educational placements for students with disabilities. The percentage of students with disabilities served in regular classes has increased considerably over the past 5 years, although, on a national level, regular classroom placements are still primarily used with elementary-aged students and those with speech or language impairments and learning disabilities. The next section of this chapter examines one of OSEP's efforts to promote the placement of students with severe disabilities in inclusive settings.
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[What the Data Show: The Positive Results of IDEA] [Table of Contents] [Statewide Systems Change for Students with Severe Disabilities]