According to the Advocacy Institute, a nonprofit focused on improving the lives of people with disabilities, the U.S. is on pace to see the number of students with disabilities, ages 3-21, jump by about 1 million students between 2021 and 2025. Pre-K-12 grade schools gained 539,617 students eligible for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) services between fall 2021 and fall 2023, the most recent year for which data is available from the U.S. Department of Education (USDE). From fall 2022 to fall 2023, the number of IDEA-eligible students increased by 3.4% to a total of 7,892,433. By comparison, it took about 20 years — from 1997 to 2017 — to add 1 million students eligible for services under the IDEA.
The federal fiscal year 2025 budget called for an average of about $1,810 in additional per-student funding to educate IDEA-eligible students, according to a budget justification from the Education Department. The federal contribution for special education equals about 10% of the national average per pupil expenditures. The disability category with the largest share of students, ages 5-21, is “specific learning disability,” representing 33.5% of all students with disabilities.
For more information from K-12 Dive, including state-level data, click here.