Who are the Children in Special Education? (continued)

What Have We Learned So Far?

Students approach their educational experiences from complex backgrounds and histories that are shaped by personal characteristics, such as:

• age, gender, and ethnic background;

• family background and circumstances, such as parents' education, expectations, and household income; and

• the nature of the students' disabilities and how well they function.

These factors shape students' home life, experiences at school, and involvement in the community, as do the ways in which students, parents, school staff, and other service personnel work together toward positive results for students. Understanding the characteristics of students and their households is essential to understanding the many major life experiences of students and to being able to serve them well.

Below are some initial findings obtained from parents' interviews that tell us more about the personal characteristics of the students and their families.

Disabilities

In 2000, SEELS found that youth receiving special education services made up 11% of all students between the ages of 6 and 13.

Of these special education students:

• 75% were classified as having either learning disabilities or speech/language impairments as their primary disabilities.

• 9% of students were classified with mental retardation.

• 6% were classified with emotional disturbances.

• 5% were classified with other health impairments.

Students in each of the other disability classifications represented fewer than 2% of all students with disabilities. When combined, these other categories comprised about 6% of students receiving special education.

When findings are presented for students with disabilities as a whole, the experiences of students with learning or speech/language disabilities are largely represented. Because the vast majority of students with disabilities are students with learning or speech/language disabilities, it is important to look closely at the results for each disability category.

Gender

Among the general population of students in grades 1-8, boys and girls are represented in about equal numbers (U.S. Census Bureau, 1999).

• Of special education students in the SEELS study, two-thirds are boys. Boys also comprise more than half of the students in each disability category.

• There are more girls with mental retardation (12%) than boys (7%).

• There are more boys with emotional disturbance (7%) than girls (4%).

• The greater number of boys than girls receiving special education appears in all racial/ethnic groups.

Some research has suggested that the higher proportion of boys among elementary and secondary school students receiving special education may be because schools use identification and assessment practices that inaccurately identify boys, more often than girls, as having certain kinds of disabilities (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2001). However, the National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study (NEILS), a national study of children birth to 3 years of age with disabilities, developmental delays, or who are at risk of delay, found a similarly high percentage (61%) of boys among infants and toddlers with disabilities (Hebbeler et al., 2001).

The greater number of boys among children with disabilities appears at very early ages, before school practices come to bear. The pattern is the same for all the age groups within SEELS and is the same for high school-age students (Wagner et al., 2002).

Whatever the reason for the greater number of boys among students receiving special education, it is important to understand that the research findings about experiences of special education students, as a group, are dominated by the experiences of boys.

Disability Classification by Gender

Wave 1 Parent Interview/Family Survey, 2000.