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

FOR RELEASE                                 Contact: Jim Bradshaw December 17, 1996                                  (202) 401-2310

More Students with Disabilities Served in Regular Classrooms

A record 43.4 percent of America's students with disabilities attended regular classrooms with non-disabled students in 1993-94, according to a new Education Department report on the condition of special education.

And in 1994-95, for the first time, the number of students in special ed exceeded 5.4 million, due in large part to a rise in the number of students reporting a learning disability.

The figures are contained in the department's "Eighteenth Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act." The act, commonly known as IDEA, is the primary federal law governing education of disabled students through age 21.

"Just 20 years ago, more than a million children with disabilities received no public education," U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley said. "Many were placed in dehumanizing state institutions for the mentally retarded.

"IDEA's guarantee of access to education has greatly increased the opportunities for disabled children and youth to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve their goals and participate in society as responsible, productive citizens."

The IDEA's requirement that all children and youth with disabilities have a right to a "free appropriate public education" in the "least restrictive environment" passed Congress in 1975. The act also mandates that "to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities ... [be] educated with children who are not disabled."

According to the report, 43.4 percent of disabled students aged 6-21 attended regular classrooms with non-disabled students in 1993-94 at least 80 percent of the day. That compared to 39.8 percent in 1992-93 and 34.9 percent in 1991-92.

The total number of special education students continued to grow, hitting a record 5.43 million in 1994-95 -- up from 5.27 million in 1993-94 and 4.45 million in 1987-88.

Among students ages 6-21, 51.1 percent had specific learning disabilities, 20.8 percent speech or language impairments, 11.6 percent mental retardation and 8.7 percent serious emotional disturbance.

Other report highlights:

Most students with speech and language impairments are served in regular classes.
Separate classrooms are most common for students with mental retardation, autism and multiple disabilities.
Students with learning disabilities, orthopedic impairments, serious emotional disturbances and traumatic brain injury are usually taught in regular school buildings but are spread across regular classes, resource rooms and separate classes.
Students with attention deficit disorder (ADD) helped account for an 89 percent increase in "other health impairments" from 1990-91 to 1994-95--the fastest-growing disability category of special education.
Colorado and Vermont have been especially successful in changing state policy to promote inclusion of students with disabilities in regular classes.
Special education teachers are in particularly short supply in inner-city areas.
According to an analysis of inner-city schools, even when income is controlled as a factor, African-Americans are disproportionately represented in some categories of disabilities.
Children ages 3-5 comprise the fastest-growing age group of any in special education with a 6.7 percent rise in 1994-95 from the year before. (Education Department officials have consistently said that the earlier students are identified as being in need of special education services, the greater their chance for academic success.)
Of all students ages 14-21 in special education in 1993-94, those most likely to graduate with a diploma were ones with visual, hearing and orthopedic impairments and traumatic brain injuries.
The per-child allocation under IDEA, Part B rose from $413 in 1994 to $418 in 1995.

NOTE TO EDITORS: The executive summary and Chapter One of the 18th annual report are on the department's Web page at the Internet address: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/OSEP96AnlRpt/. (Be sure to type capital letters where designated, as the department's Internet server is case sensitive.) Limited copies of the report are also available by writing the Research to Practice Division, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, Switzer Building, 330 C St., S.W., Room 3530, Washington, D.C. 20202.

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