Previous Story
2004 records: 751 SPED students in the CNMI
|
Posted on Sep 05 2005
The CNMI had a total of 751 Special Education students in 2004, based on the official report of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
Public School System Special Education coordinator Joanne Nicholls presented the report to members of the Board of Education Thursday last week. The 2004 report included a breakdown of the individuals with disabilities in the CNMI from ages 3 to 5 and 6 to 21 years old.
The report said there are a total of 82 SPED students from three to five years old. Of the number, 78 are of Asian or Pacific Islander ethnicity; three are Caucasian; and one African-American.
Within this age range, 40 have developmental delay, 14 have speech or language impairments, and 11 have autism. There were six students who had hearing impairments and three who had multiple disabilities. Only two SPED students had mental retardation, two with orthopedic impairments and two with specific learning disabilities.
For the age bracket of 6 to 21 years old, there were a total of 669 SPED students in 2004, with 660 of them having Asian or Pacific Islander ethnic origins and nine Caucasians.
SPED students from this category had 454 students with specific learning disabilities and 69 with mental retardation. There were 34 children who had speech or language deficiency and 21 students with multiple disabilities and another 21 with other health impairments. Seventeen students had autism.
Sixteen students had hearing impairments, 15 had development delay and 10 had orthopedic impairments. Seven SPED students had visual impediments and four had emotional disturbance. One student enrolled last year had traumatic brain injury.
The report also showed that there was 47 students from ages 14 to 21 who exited the SPED program last year, with 46 of them of Asian or Pacific Islander ethnicity and one Caucasian.
There were 16 SPED students who graduated with regular high school diploma while 14 dropped out of the program.
Eight of the students received a certificate of SPED program completion and seven were transferred to regular education.
Records for 2005 are not yet available.
