Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

More than 5 Million Children and Youth are Disabled

Jul 23, 2002

New Census figures show a sharp growth in the nation's young who are identified as having physical or mental disabilities according to the Washington Post. One in 12 children and teens have handicaps, and special education enrollment has risen twice as fast as overall school enrollment in the last decade. Medical advances in saving low birth weight babies, broader understanding and definitions of disabilities, rising obesity associated and asthma, autism and learning disabilities have all contributed to the higher numbers. Higher rates of disability seem to occur in rural and urban areas with higher rates of poverty.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25998-2002Jul4.html