We recently wrote about troubling news when it comes to accessibility for the disabled in our nation’s schools and a request by several members of Congress for a review of accessibility.
On the other end of the spectrum, here’s some good news about special education.
There are an increasing number of students receiving special education in the nation’s public schools, based on a recent report from the U.S. Department of Education.
Our public schools saw as many as 6.7 million students with disabilities in classrooms across the country during the 2015-2016 school year. That makes up 13.2 percent of all students. That total is up from 6.6 million during the prior school year.
These numbers come from the annual report of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, and it covers students ages 3 to 21 receiving services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The report indicated that of all those in special education programs, a little more than a third had specific learning disabilities, 20 percent had speech or language impairments and 14 percent had what was categorized as other health impairments. The report also showed that 9 percent had autism, 6 percent developmental delay and 6 percent intellectual disability.
There were two other pieces of good news in the report. Among school-age children with disabilities, 63 percent spent at least 80 percent of the day in general education classrooms. That’s up from less than half in 2000. And overall special education enrollment continues to trend upward.