OSEP Releases Fast Facts: Children Identified With Emotional Disturbance

Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services’ Office of Special Education Programs. OSEP Fast Facts: Children Identified With Emotional Disturbance. Percentage of Students with Disabilities Identified with Emotional Disturbance, Ages 6 to 21, Served Under IDEA, Part B, in the United States: School Year 2018-19. Map of United States. In SY 2018-19, the percentage of students with disabilities identified with emotional disturbance is 5.45%. States report a range from 1.65% to 17.36% of students with disabilities identified with Emotional Disturbance. Source: U.S. Department of Education, EDFacts Data Warehouse (EDW): “IDEA Part B Child Count and Educational Environments Collection,” 2018-19. https://go.usa.gov/xdp4T. Data for Wisconsin suppressed due to questionable data quality. Iowa does not use the specific disability categories when classifying a student as eligible for special education.]

By Office of Special Education Programs


We were overwhelmed by the positive feedback we got on our first release, OSEP Fast Facts: Children Identified With Autism, and are excited to present OSEP Fast Facts: Children Identified With Emotional Disturbance. For this Fast Fact, we present data from the 12 data collections authorized under IDEA Section 618 on children identified with a primary disability of emotional disturbance. Data presented includes that collected through Part B child count, educational environments, discipline and exiting data collections authorized under IDEA Section 618. 

Data showed that 5.45% of student with disabilities in school year 2018–19 were identified with emotional disturbance. States reported a range from 1.65% to 17.36% of students with disabilities identified with emotional disturbance.

OSEP Fast Facts is an ongoing effort to display data from the 12 data collections authorized under IDEA Section 618 as graphic, visual representations with the intent to present 618 data quickly and clearly. Visit the OSEP Fast Facts page for existing and future Fast Facts.


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2 Comments

  1. I am a student trying to determine the prevalence of SED in schools. I can see many barriers to gathering this data. As noted above, some students with a qualifying disability other than SED can become emotionally challenged due to mistreatment. Also, many students with emotional disturbance are undiagnosed due to the challenging process of obtaining a diagnosis and then becoming qualified for special education under that category. In the breakdown across states, I think what we are seeing is states that do well in getting SED evaluated and those that do not. What I am curious about is the actual prevalence, diagnosed or not, even if it is just an estimate.

  2. It’s because school systems are not meeting the support needs of the autistic students sending them into a long term state of emotional disturbances. The kids don’t have enough time after school to unpack all the emotional stress pushed upon by school expectations. Why is my autistic child being labeled Emotionally disturbed. I would like you to do an in school observation. My child is not emotionally disturbed. Are you giving schools more money to make this shift of labels? Contact me. I want to know.

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