The Census Bureau has a new report on school-aged Americans with disabilities. (The report does not break out separate data for autism.)
This brief, based on 2010 American Community Survey estimates, examines disability type, school enrollment and geographic distribution for school-age children in the United States. The brief compares disability rates of children among states and metropolitan vs. nonmetropolitan areas.
Highlights:
- Of the 53.9 million school-age children 5 to 17, about 2.8 million were reported as having a disability in 2010.
- Across the states, the percentage of metro area children with disabilities who were enrolled in public schools ranged from 76.5 percent to nearly 100 percent.
- Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Ohio and the District of Columbia had public school enrollment rates for children with a disability that was less than the national estimate, while Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming had enrollment rates above the national estimate.
- Rates of disability among school-age children for metropolitan statistical areas ranged from 1.2 to 13.0 percent, while the disability rates for those enrolled in public schools ranged from 1.4 percent to 14.6 percent.
- About 89.4 percent of school-age children with a disability living in metro areas were enrolled in public schools, 7.3 percent were enrolled in private schools and 3.3 percent were not enrolled in school.
Internet address: <http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acsbr10-12.pdf>.
