Special Education Data - 618 Data Collections

This page contains data relating to the 618 Data Collections as outlined in the IDEA (see IDEA Section 618 Data Products for more information) and Rhode Island's collection and reporting of this data.

 

Rhode Island's Special Education Population - Child Count

The US Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs requires yearly reporting of the count of students served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B, by age group. These counts are known as "Child Count" and serve as the basis for the special education population statistics for each entity under the US Department of Education. 

OSEP's guidelines for Child Count include a range of acceptable "as of" count dates, the day on which the count is based. States are able to choose a date between October 1 and December 1 of each school year. Rhode Island's Child Count date is December 1. 

Each year, the Child Count data is submitted to the US Department of Education as part of the EdFacts initiative. As of the 2023-24 school year collections, the data is submitted on through the EDPass platform in July of each year - the 2023-24 Child Count files were submitted in July 2024 and constitute the final data that both RIDE and the US Department of Education will use for the upcoming year. 

The data is submitted in 2 separate files, one for "School Age" counts (students ages 5-21 in Kindergarten through Grade 12) and one for Early Childhood Special Education (students ages 3-5 in Pre-K). These files are outlined by the US Department of Education through the EDFacts initiative and have file specifications that are released yearly. The files for Child Count are FS002 - Children with Disabilities (IDEA) School Age and FS089 - Children with Disabilities (IDEA) Early Childhood. 

Below, see RIDE's Child Count data as it was reported for the most recent school year, 2023-24, and submitted to the US Department of Education in July 2024. Please note that any category with a * indicates a count <10.

 

Total Students with Disabilities Population: 25,945

 

By Age Group

School Age (K-12): 23,196

Early Childhood (3-5 Pre-K): 2,749

 

By Race and Ethnicity

American Indian or Alaskan Native (AM7) 301
Asian (AS7) 480
Black or African American (BL7) 2,513
Hispanic (HI7) 7,996
Two or More Races (MU7) 1,569
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (PI7) 29
White (WH7) 13,057
 

By Primary Disability/Disability Category

Emotionally Disordered 1,296
Intellectual Disabilities 826
Orthopedically Impaired 36
Other Health Impaired 4,278
Learning Disabled 7,854
Deaf/Blind *
Hearing Impaired (Deaf or Hard of Hearing) 144
Speech/Language Impaired 4,537
Blind/Visual Impaired 51
Multi-handicapped 417
Developmentally Delayed 3,477
Autism 2,984
Traumatic Brain Injury 40
 

Other Demographic Categories

Age (Calculated as of 12/1/2023)

Age 3

928

Age 4

1,323

Age 5

1,465

Age 6

1,778

Age 7

1,790

Age 8

1,917

Age 9

1,929

Age 10

1,763

Age 11

1,658

Age 12

1,784

Age 13

1,832

Age 14

1,744

Age 15

1,588

Age 16

1,681

Age 17 

1,488

Age 18

748

Age 19

275

Age 20

168

Age 21

21

Age 5  
includes  
PK and K

Gender

Male 16,898
Female 9,042
Other *

Limited English Proficiency Status (MLLs)

Non-MLL Students 19,783
MLL Students ("Dually Identified") 3,413

**As MLL identification happens after Pre-K, LEP status is only applicable to K-12 ("School Age") counts.

Educational Environment Data - Least Restrictive Environment

In addition to the demographic information contained in the Child Count files submitted (FS002 and FS089), the Child Count collection includes information on the educational environment of children with disabilities. Under IDEA, students are entitled to a Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment, or "LRE" (20 USC 1412(5)(B)).

For the School Age file, RIDE collects data on the location of each student throughout their school day and calculates which of the defined educational environment categories each student falls under. The school age categories are:

 

In a Regular Classroom 80% or more of the day (RC80) Students who receive special education services and are in a general education classroom with typical peers for at least 80% of the day (averaged across a week).
In a Regular Classroom 40% to 79% of the day (RC79TO40) Students who receive special education services and are in a general education classroom with typical peers for at least 40% but no more than 79% of the day (averaged across a week).
In a Regular Classroom less than 40% of the day (RC39) Students who receive special education services and are in a general education classroom with typical peers less than 40% of the day (averaged across a week).
In a Separate School (SS) Students who receive special education services and are attending a school for children with disabilities, and receive their education and services in this setting .
In a Residential Facility (RF) Students who receive special education services and are placed in a residential facility, and receive their education and services in this setting.
Homebound or Hospitalized (HH) Students who receive special education services and are homebound or hospitalized, and receive their education and services in this setting.
In a Correctional Facility (CF) Students receiving special education services and are in a correctional facility. In Rhode Island, this applies only to students at the Department of Corrections.
Parentally Placed in a Private School (PPPS) Students receiving special education services through an IEP written by their district of residence but are attending a private school in which they were enrolled by their parent/guardian.

 

Early Childhood Special Education has separate categories. These categories are reported to RIDE by the servicing district of each student for the Child Count collection submission. The categories for ECSE are:

 

In a Regular Early Childhood Program and Receiving Majority of Services in EC Setting Students who receive special education services in a regular EC program among typical peers
No Regular Early Childhood Program, and in a Separate Class, School, or Residential Facility Students with no regular EC program and receive special education services in a separate special education class, school, or residential facility
No Early Childhood Program and Receiving Services in Home Students with no regular EC program and receive special education services in their home and have no EC program
No Early Childhood Program and Receiving Services at a Service Provider Location Students with no regular EC program and receive special education services in a service provider location
In a Regular Early Childhood Program but Receiving Majority of Services Elsewhere Students enrolled in a regular EC program with typical peers but receive the majority of their services elsewhere

 

As part of the yearly State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR), LRE data is reported for 3 categories in separate "Indicators" based on age group (see the State's SPP/APR page for more information on this Indicator and all others). 

Indicator 5 is for School Age LRE and has 3 parts: 

 

5A RC80 - Percent of students.  
State-set target, data should be above the target
5B RC39 - Percent of students. 
State-set target, data should be below the target.
5C SS + RF + HH - Percent of students 
State-set target, data should be below the target.

 

Indicator 6 is LRE for ECSE, and is also 3 parts:

 

6A Regular EC Program - Percent of students. 
State-set target, data should be above the target.
6B Separate Class + Separate School + Residential Facility - Percent of students. 
State-set target, data should be below the target.
6C Services in Home - Percent of students. 
State-set target, data should be below the target.

 

LRE data for 2023-24 is as follows:

 

School Age

RC80 16,768 72.29%
RC79TO40 2,388 10.29%
RC39 2,251 9.70%
SS 1,247 5.38%
RF 93 0.40%
HH 16 0.07%
CF * *
PPPS 433 1.87%

 

Early Childhood

 

Regular EC Program 1,376 50.07%
Separate Class, Separate School, Residential Facility 439 15.98%
Home * *
Service Provider Location 657 23.91%
In Regular EC Program, Services Elsewhere 267 9.72%

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