Skip Navigation
Digest of Education Statistics
2022 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 204.50. Children 3 to 21 years old served under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B, by age group and sex, race/ethnicity, and type of disability: School year 2021-22
Type of disability Total1 3 to 5 years old
(including only 5-
year-olds not yet
in kindergarten)2
5 to 21 years old
(including only 5-
year-olds in
kindergarten)3
Total, 3 to 21 years old
Male Female Male Female American
Indian/
Alaska
Native
Asian Black Hispanic Pacific Islander White Two or
more
races
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
  Number of children served
All disabilities 7,259,425 327,997 144,630 4,403,551 2,316,497 84,348 203,607 1,231,089 1,999,987 20,830 3,372,223 352,162
Autism 882,284 --- --- 673,441 147,501 6,430 58,382 136,567 237,619 2,542 396,269 45,706
Deaf-blindness 1,790 --- --- 853 781 26 89 211 446 6 921 92
Developmental delay4 487,309 --- --- 187,868 79,240 9,365 16,455 84,094 106,430 1,764 241,509 28,243
Emotional disturbance 333,504 --- --- 230,091 95,971 4,108 3,515 71,309 64,558 662 167,088 21,912
Hearing impairment 70,738 --- --- 34,662 30,354 769 4,297 8,703 23,107 344 30,499 3,078
Intellectual disability 426,478 --- --- 239,194 169,942 4,900 11,228 107,834 119,473 1,541 165,562 16,144
Multiple disabilities 125,167 --- --- 74,202 46,964 1,854 4,874 20,842 26,404 561 65,244 5,413
Orthopedic impairment 32,969 --- --- 16,914 12,692 261 1,777 4,032 9,414 114 15,999 1,432
Other health impairment5 1,116,132 --- --- 776,090 328,520 10,664 17,118 195,479 237,640 2,484 592,430 60,256
Specific learning disability 2,354,769 --- --- 1,338,976 972,815 31,571 35,843 424,534 769,962 7,811 983,328 101,507
Speech or language impairment 1,378,195 --- --- 803,269 411,919 13,763 48,138 169,970 393,592 2,849 687,062 66,133
Traumatic brain injury 24,838 --- --- 15,022 8,999 302 701 3,861 5,378 70 13,413 1,107
Visual impairment 25,251 --- --- 12,969 10,799 335 1,188 3,653 5,963 82 12,898 1,141
  Percentage distribution of children served
All disabilities 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Autism 12.2 --- --- 15.3 6.4 7.6 28.7 11.1 11.9 12.2 11.8 13.0
Deaf-blindness # --- --- # # # # # # # # #
Developmental delay4 6.7 --- --- 4.3 3.4 11.1 8.1 6.8 5.3 8.5 7.2 8.0
Emotional disturbance 4.6 --- --- 5.2 4.1 4.9 1.7 5.8 3.2 3.2 5.0 6.2
Hearing impairment 1.0 --- --- 0.8 1.3 0.9 2.1 0.7 1.2 1.7 0.9 0.9
Intellectual disability 5.9 --- --- 5.4 7.3 5.8 5.5 8.8 6.0 7.4 4.9 4.6
Multiple disabilities 1.7 --- --- 1.7 2.0 2.2 2.4 1.7 1.3 2.7 1.9 1.5
Orthopedic impairment 0.5 --- --- 0.4 0.5 0.3 0.9 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.4
Other health impairment5 15.4 --- --- 17.6 14.2 12.6 8.4 15.9 11.9 11.9 17.6 17.1
Specific learning disability 32.4 --- --- 30.4 42.0 37.4 17.6 34.5 38.5 37.5 29.2 28.8
Speech or language impairment 19.0 --- --- 18.2 17.8 16.3 23.6 13.8 19.7 13.7 20.4 18.8
Traumatic brain injury 0.3 --- --- 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.3
Visual impairment 0.3 --- --- 0.3 0.5 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.3
  Number of children served as a percent of total enrollment6
All disabilities 14.7 17.9 9.9 18.6 7.6 16.7 14.2 11.5 15.1 15.1
Autism 1.8 --- --- 2.7 0.6 1.4 2.2 1.8 1.7 1.4 1.8 2.0
Deaf-blindness # --- --- # # # # # # # # #
Developmental delay4 1.0 --- --- 0.8 0.3 2.1 0.6 1.1 0.8 1.0 1.1 1.2
Emotional disturbance 0.7 --- --- 0.9 0.4 0.9 0.1 1.0 0.5 0.4 0.7 0.9
Hearing impairment 0.1 --- --- 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.1
Intellectual disability 0.9 --- --- 1.0 0.7 1.1 0.4 1.5 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.7
Multiple disabilities 0.3 --- --- 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.2
Orthopedic impairment 0.1 --- --- 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
Other health impairment5 2.3 --- --- 3.2 1.4 2.4 0.6 2.6 1.7 1.4 2.7 2.6
Specific learning disability 4.8 --- --- 5.4 4.2 7.0 1.3 5.7 5.5 4.3 4.4 4.3
Speech or language impairment 2.8 --- --- 3.3 1.8 3.0 1.8 2.3 2.8 1.6 3.1 2.8
Traumatic brain injury 0.1 --- --- 0.1 # 0.1 # 0.1 # # 0.1 #
Visual impairment 0.1 --- --- 0.1 # 0.1 # # # # 0.1 #
---Not available.
#Rounds to zero.
‡Reporting standards not met.
1Totals are based on overall counts of children by type of disability; they are not based on summing the counts reported for the individual racial/ethnic groups or the counts reported by sex. (Due to data limitations, summing the counts by disability type within each racial/ethnic group would result in a total overcount of 4,821 children. Because of missing data on type of disability by sex, summing the counts by disability type for males and females would result in undercounts.)
2For 3- to 5-year-olds not yet in kindergarten, no data are available on type of disability by sex.
3For 5-year-olds in kindergarten to 21-year-olds, data include only those children served for whom both sex and type of disability were reported. About 1 percent of all 5- to 21-year-olds are excluded from this table because of missing data.
4Although federal law does not require that states/entities and local education agencies categorize children according to developmental delay, if this category is required by state law, they are expected to report these children in the developmental delay category.
5Other health impairments include having limited strength, vitality, or alertness due to chronic or acute health problems such as a heart condition, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, nephritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy, lead poisoning, leukemia, or diabetes.
6Percentages for 5- to 21-year-olds by sex are based on total public school enrollment in kindergarten through grade 12 by sex. Data on total public school enrollment by grade are available in table 203.10, but data on total enrollment by sex are unpublished. Percentages for 3- to 21-year-olds by race/ethnicity are based on total public school enrollment in prekindergarten through grade 12 by race/ethnicity. For total public school enrollment by race/ethnicity, see table 203.50.
NOTE: Data by disability type for Iowa are imputed based on the reported 2018-19 percentage distribution by disability type applied to the 2021-22 total number of children served in Iowa. Data for 2021-22 include 2020-21 data for 3- to 5-year-olds in Louisiana because 2021-22 data were not available for children in that age group. Although data are for the 50 states and the District of Columbia, data limitations result in inclusion of a small (but unknown) number of students from other jurisdictions. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) database, retrieved February 25, 2022, from https://data.ed.gov/dataset/idea-section-618-data-products. National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education," 2021-22. (This table was prepared February 2023.)

2022 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest