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Facts About Learning Differences

Facts-About-Learning-Differences-C4L

According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, newly released data for the 2015-2016 school year shows:

  • 1 in 5 children have learning and attention issues
  • 1 in 16 school age children receive special education services for specific learning disabilities and attention difficulties
  • 15% of students receiving special education are classified under Other Health Impairments (OHI) when ADHD is the main reason students qualify for special education
  • 39% of students receiving special education are classified under specific learning disabilities
  • 1 in 50 public school students receive accommodations through Section 504 plans
  • 33% of classroom teachers and other educators believe sometimes what people call a learning or attention issue is really just laziness
  • 43% of parents say that they wouldn’t want others to know if their child had a learning disability
  • Doctors who recommend having a child evaluated for learning and attention issues say parents follow their recommendation only 54% of the time
Facts-About-Learning-Differences-C4L
Facts-About-Learning-Differences-C4L

Risk factors for students with specific learning disabilities and/or ADHD:

  • Students with IEPs were 85% more likely—and students with 504 plans were 110% more likely—to repeat a grade than their peers without disabilities in 2013–2014. Retention increases the risk of dropping out.
  • 70.8% of students with SLD—and 72.1% of students with OHI—left school in 2013–2014 with a regular diploma, lagging behind the national average by about 10 percentage points.
  • Nearly 1 in 5 students (19%) with IEPs miss three or more weeks of school each year, compared to about 1 in 8 students (13%) without IEPs.
  • Students with disabilities are more than twice as likely to be suspended as students without disabilities, and the loss of instructional time increases the risk of repeating a grade and dropping out.
  • In 2013–2014, 18.1% of students with SLD and 17.6% of students with OHI dropped out, nearly three times the rate of all students (6.5%). In a national longitudinal survey, the most common reason students with SLD gave for dropping out was that they disliked school.
  • Some studies indicate a third or more of incarcerated youth have learning disabilities, and an even greater proportion may show signs of ADHD.