A Two Decade Review of the Number of Students with Disabilities Receiving Federal Monies and the Types of Educational Placements Used

As public school programs for students with disabilities begin the third decade under federal mandate, review of the number of students participating in these programs and their placements seems appropriate. The federal mandate (Public Law 94-142) was passed by Congress in 1975 and implementation began in 1978. This was not, however, the beginning of public school programs for students with disabilities. According to Kirk (1962), "The public school movement began slowly in the early 1900's. Since then it has spread in various forms until now almost all types and degrees of exceptionality can be found in public school programs." (p. 6). The same statement would be equally true today. During that same period, Dunn (1963) wrote, "The twelve types of exceptional children are the (1) educable mentally retarded, (2) trainable mentally retarded, (3) gifted, (4) emotionally disturbed, (5) socially maladjusted, (6) speech impaired, (7) hard of hearing, (8) deaf, (9) partially seeing, (10) blind, (11) crippled, and (12) those with chronic health problems." (p. 44). Contemporary reference to students with disabilities is intended to place less emphasis on the disability and place more importance on the person first. Regarding students with disabilities, information currently monitored at the federal level also includes 12 disability areas, but there are some differences. The 12 areas today are (1) autism, (2) deaf-blind, (3) hearing impaired, (4) mental retardation, (5) multiple disabilities, (6) orthopedic, impairments, (7) other health impairments, (8) serious emotional disturbance, (9) specific learning disabilities, (10) speech or language impairments, (11) traumatic brain injury, and (12) visual impairments. Today's list includes seemingly new categories; autism, specific learning disabilities, and traumatic brain injury. Students with autistic type disorders were previously served in the emotionally disturbed area, as were students presently classified as socially maladjusted. Many students formerly classified as having minimal brain damage or perceptual handicaps or neurologically damaged or dyslexic are presently classified as learning disabled. Regardless of the type of disability, students with more severe disabilities may be reclassified today. The area "gifted" has been not been deleted as a part of public school special education programs, but because it is not a part of the Public Law 94-142 mandate, these data are not reported by the United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in their annual reports to Congress. Education for students with gifted ability is for the most part, permitted, and consequently nation-wide incidence figures are difficult, if not impossible to obtain. Laws requiring school-age children to attend public or private schools have not always applied to all children, and children with disabilities have not always been welcomed or viewed as potential beneficiaries of what education had to offer. Although mandates were rare, many states had permissive legislation allowing local districts to provide programs insofar as it was practical. The methods of providing instruction to students with disabilities have always been of concern to special educators. For most of the 20th century, exceptional children were defined as those who deviated so far from the mean, that they could not profit fully from regular instruction in the regular classroom. Separation from their non-labeled peers was believed only appropriate when absolutely necessary and for no longer a period of time than absolutely necessary. Administrative provisions over the years have included, and continue to include the special/separate class, the resource room, and the regular class with itinerant support. At any given time, the "preferred" approach is more evolutionary than cyclical. Research has neither consistently nor conclusively demonstrated one approach to be better than any other. …