2017 Edu/stats
ISSUE No. 9 • FALL ’17
In May 2017, the National Center for Education Statistics released the following special education data for the 2014-2015 school year:
- Thirteen percent of all public school students ages 3-21, or 6.6 million students, received special education services.
- A higher percentage of students—35 percent—received services for a specific learning disability than for any other type of disability. (A specific learning disability is a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language.)
- The highest percentage of public school students receiving services for a specific learning disability was among American Indian/Alaska natives (17 percent), followed by black students (15 percent), white students (13 percent), and those of two or more races (13 percent).