U.S. Special Education Enrollment by State 2026: Statistics & Charts
Federal IDEA Part B data counted 7,525,941 children and students ages 3–21 receiving special education and related services across the 50 states and District of Columbia in school year 2022–23.
State system size and enrollment rate answer different questions. The count measures service scale; the percentage measures the share of public school enrollment represented by students served under IDEA.
Special Education Enrollment Statistics
National values use the same IDEA Part B and public enrollment basis as the state comparison.
Largest State Special Education Systems
Top 15 states by children and students ages 3–21 served under IDEA Part B in 2022–23.
The chart summarizes system scale. The complete 51-jurisdiction ranking and enrollment-rate comparison remain visible in the state table.
Largest-system concentration
- The five largest state systems account for 37.5% of the national IDEA Part B count.
- Count rank does not track rate rank because the measures use different denominators.
Special Education Enrollment by State
Count rank uses students served. Rate rank uses the reported percentage of public school enrollment; tied percentages share a rank.
| Count rank | State | IDEA students | Public share | Rate rank | Change | Ages 3–5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 805,289 | 13.6% | 38 | +24.8% | 47,017 |
| 2 | Texas | 703,058 | 12.7% | 49 | +43.0% | 35,760 |
| 3 | New York | 524,993 | 20.7% | 2 | +19.0% | 45,966 |
| 4 | Florida | 432,391 | 15.1% | 28 | +17.7% | 23,219 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | 357,917 | 21.1% | 1 | +47.5% | 31,962 |
| 6 | Illinois | 295,261 | 15.9% | 24 | -0.7% | 25,336 |
| 7 | Ohio | 278,916 | 16.6% | 18 | +17.4% | 22,004 |
| 8 | New Jersey | 243,035 | 17.6% | 13 | +9.6% | 14,715 |
| 9 | Georgia | 230,363 | 13.2% | 42 | +34.5% | 10,161 |
| 10 | North Carolina | 202,310 | 13.1% | 45 | +16.9% | 12,600 |
| 11 | Michigan | 199,856 | 13.9% | 36 | -9.8% | 12,406 |
| 12 | Indiana | 188,078 | 18.2% | 9 | +20.3% | 14,015 |
| 13 | Massachusetts | 182,105 | 19.7% | 4 | +12.3% | 12,184 |
| 14 | Virginia | 177,836 | 14.1% | 33 | +9.6% | 12,471 |
| 15 | Washington | 151,949 | 13.9% | 36 | +27.8% | 10,819 |
| 16 | Minnesota | 151,845 | 17.5% | 14 | +38.2% | 12,992 |
| 17 | Arizona | 149,811 | 13.2% | 42 | +55.3% | 8,824 |
| 18 | Tennessee | 132,339 | 13.1% | 45 | +5.1% | 10,293 |
| 19 | Missouri | 127,376 | 14.3% | 31 | -7.3% | 11,722 |
| 20 | Wisconsin | 125,334 | 15.2% | 26 | 0.0% | 9,152 |
| 21 | Oklahoma | 120,920 | 17.2% | 16 | +41.3% | 5,030 |
| 22 | Maryland | 114,732 | 12.9% | 48 | +2.4% | 10,773 |
| 23 | Colorado | 113,289 | 13.0% | 47 | +43.9% | 9,108 |
| 24 | South Carolina | 112,142 | 14.2% | 32 | +5.9% | 6,623 |
| 25 | Kentucky | 109,749 | 16.6% | 18 | +16.0% | 11,674 |
| 26 | Alabama | 99,921 | 13.3% | 40 | +0.1% | 4,669 |
| 27 | Louisiana | 96,916 | 13.5% | 39 | -1.0% | 6,648 |
| 28 | Utah | 91,715 | 13.3% | 40 | +70.1% | 7,572 |
| 29 | Connecticut | 88,635 | 17.3% | 15 | +20.0% | 6,709 |
| 30 | Oregon | 87,648 | 15.2% | 26 | +16.5% | 7,650 |
| 31 | Kansas | 81,063 | 16.6% | 18 | +32.3% | 8,442 |
| 32 | Arkansas | 80,226 | 16.3% | 23 | +28.9% | 9,925 |
| 33 | Iowa | 71,801 | 14.0% | 34 | -0.9% | 4,836 |
| 34 | Mississippi | 69,280 | 15.7% | 25 | +11.2% | 3,973 |
| 35 | Nevada | 64,032 | 13.2% | 42 | +67.8% | 4,305 |
| 36 | New Mexico | 56,195 | 17.8% | 11 | +7.5% | 3,347 |
| 37 | Nebraska | 55,212 | 16.8% | 17 | +29.0% | 4,668 |
| 38 | West Virginia | 46,973 | 18.7% | 6 | -6.7% | 3,557 |
| 39 | Idaho | 38,298 | 12.1% | 50 | +31.3% | 2,211 |
| 40 | Maine | 35,828 | 20.6% | 3 | +0.5% | 2,399 |
| 41 | New Hampshire | 30,917 | 18.3% | 8 | +2.8% | 2,213 |
| 42 | Delaware | 27,502 | 19.4% | 5 | +64.1% | 2,361 |
| 43 | Rhode Island | 24,650 | 17.9% | 10 | -19.8% | 2,441 |
| 44 | South Dakota | 23,232 | 16.4% | 22 | +38.1% | 1,833 |
| 45 | Montana | 21,112 | 14.0% | 34 | +9.3% | 820 |
| 46 | Hawaii | 19,920 | 11.7% | 51 | -16.8% | 1,880 |
| 47 | Alaska | 19,368 | 14.8% | 30 | +9.5% | 1,103 |
| 48 | North Dakota | 17,654 | 14.9% | 29 | +29.3% | 1,754 |
| 49 | Wyoming | 16,352 | 17.7% | 12 | +24.3% | 2,280 |
| 50 | Vermont | 15,471 | 18.5% | 7 | +13.6% | 1,365 |
| 51 | District of Columbia | 15,126 | 16.6% | 18 | +43.3% | 1,376 |
| — | United States | 7,525,941 | 15.2% | — | +19.5% | 527,163 |
State spread and movement
- Reported state rates range from 11.7% to 21.1%, a spread of 9.4 percentage points.
- 19 jurisdictions fall in the 13.0%–14.9% band, the largest rate group.
- Utah records the largest increase since 2000–01 at 70.1%; Rhode Island records the largest decline at 19.8%.
State Rate Distribution
The bands count jurisdictions by their reported IDEA share of public enrollment.
National Disability Category Mix
NCES reports each student under a primary IDEA disability category for this distribution.
Specific learning disability
32.0% of children and students served under IDEA Part B.
Speech or language impairment
19.0% of the national IDEA Part B count.
Other health impairment
15.3% of the national IDEA Part B count.
Autism
13.0% of the national IDEA Part B count.
The four largest categories account for 79.3% of the reported count. Developmental delay, intellectual disability, emotional disturbance, multiple disabilities, hearing impairment, orthopedic impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment, and deaf-blindness make up the remaining reported categories.
National Enrollment Movement Since 2000–01
Selected school years track the IDEA Part B count for ages 3–21.
The series declined in 2020–21, then reached 7.53 million in 2022–23.
Long-term movement
- The national count rose by 1.23 million students between 2000–01 and 2022–23.
- The public enrollment share moved from 13.3% to 15.2% over the same period.
What the State Comparison Measures
The ranking is limited to the selected count and rate measures.
System scale and enrollment share
Student count reflects the size of the service population. Enrollment share normalizes the count against the state public school population. A state can rank high on one measure and much lower on the other.
IDEA and Section 504
The IDEA Part B count covers eligible children receiving special education and related services. Students receiving accommodations only under Section 504 are not included.
Preschool reporting boundary
The ages 3–5 column includes 5-year-olds who are not yet in kindergarten. Beginning in 2020–21, 5-year-olds in kindergarten are reported with the school-age group.
Rates are not service-quality scores
Identification practices, eligibility patterns, age structure, program access, and reporting decisions can affect state rates. The ranking does not measure IEP quality, staffing, inclusion, or student outcomes.
Data Coverage and Comparability
State enrollment source
NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.70, covering IDEA Part B counts and percentages by state or jurisdiction.
Disability category source
NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.30, covering children ages 3–21 served under IDEA Part B by disability type.
Federal collection
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, IDEA Section 618 Part B Child Count and Educational Environments data.
Public enrollment denominator
NCES Common Core of Data, State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education, 2022–23.
Measurement: The state count is an unduplicated IDEA Part B count of children and students ages 3–21 receiving special education and related services. Percentages use total public prekindergarten–grade 12 enrollment and are reproduced from the NCES table rather than recalculated from rounded values.
Comparability: State dashboards may use a different count date, age range, denominator, or revision. National disability-category counts are rounded to thousands. The 2026 title identifies the publication edition; the latest complete NCES state comparison used here is school year 2022–23.
Count rank describes service-system size, and rate rank describes the reported IDEA share of public enrollment. Neither rank establishes that one state identifies students more accurately, delivers stronger services, or produces better outcomes.