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MORE STUDENTS IN CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES HAVE DISABILITIES THAN IN THE GENERAL SCHOOL POPULATION

April 18, 2000

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special Education News presents this monthly feature to give readers a glimpse of interesting developments in the special education field. Special Education News welcomes submissions for future monthly data reports.

From the 1992-93 school year to the 1996-97 school year, the number of students with disabilities in correctional facilities has increased at more than twice the rate of the general school population. The number increased 13 percent in the general population but 28 percent in correctional facilities, to a total of 15,930 as of Dec. 1, 1996.

This increase does not automatically indicate a problem, however. As is the case with the steady increase in students receiving IDEA services in the general population over the past several years, correctional facilities may be getting better or more aggressive at identifying their students' special needs and steering them into IDEA-funded programs, the Department of Education said. The increase has been most evident among juveniles with learning disabilities and emotional disturbance.

Those two types of disability are also the most prevalent, overall, among students receiving IDEA services in correctional facilities:

Emotional disturbance: 42% of students receiving services

Specific learning disability: 45%

Mental retardation: 7%

Speech or language impairment: 3%

Other disabilities: 3%

IDEA stipulates that youths with disabilities in correctional facilities are entitled to special education and related services, but the Department of Education notes that indentifying these students and ensuring they receive the appropriate services can be "extremely challenging." The transience of the student population, conflicting goals for security and rehabilitation within the facilities, shortages of adequately trained staff and limited interagency coordination are all factors in delivering these services, the department says. It is also difficult to track whether the state of special ed services in correctional facilities is improving, the department said, because there is little data on students in these settings and because state programs and goals vary widely.

States with the highest proportion of their students with disabilities getting services in correctional facilities:

Delaware: 0.77 % of all students with disabilities

New Mexico: 0.77 %

Rhode Island: 0.64 %

States with no students with disabilities receiving services in correctional facilities: Mississippi, Vermont

National average for all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico: 0.29 %

Source: U.S. Department of Education's 21st Annual Report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.