Wyoming assessment of rehabilitation needs

Population of Special Concern: Students in Transition:
According to the Wyoming Department of Education, there were 11,680 students with a disability enrolled in K-12 throughout Wyoming in December 2005 (Table 11). This number has remained fairly constant in recent years (Table 12). Approximately 14 percent of all students are recorded as having a disability (Table 11). The largest disability category is “learning disability” (41.0%), followed by “speech and language impairment” (27.3%).
Of special interest to the Students in Transition program are people in the 16 to 20 age group. These are the years that young adults are transitioning from school to work. According to the 2000 Census, there were approximately 4,350 people with disabilities in this age group in 2000 (Table 13). Fifty-six percent were male, and 44 percent were female.

Table 11: Students with Disabilities, Grades K-12, 2005-2006 School Year Source: WY Dept. of Education
Disability
	Students with Disabilities	% of Disability	% of Total Enrollment*
Autism	247	2.1%	0.3%
Hard of Hearing	135	1.2%	0.2%
Deafness	23	0.2%	0.0%
Mental Disability	571	4.9%	0.7%
Orthopedic Impairment	105	0.9%	0.1%
Other Health Impairment	1,437	12.3%	1.7%
Emotional Disability	956	8.2%	1.1%
Speech or Language Impairment	3,185	27.3%	3.8%
Learning Disability	4,787	41.0%	5.7%
Traumatic Brain Injury	63	0.5%	0.1%
Visual Disability	58	0.5%	0.1%
Deaf/Blind	0	0.0%	0.0%
Multiple Disabilities	113	1.0%	0.1%
Total with Disabilities	11,680	100.0%	14.0%
*Total enrollment in October 2005 was 83,705.

Table 12: Ten-Year Comparison, Prevalence of Disabilities In Wyoming School Population (K-12) Source: 2003 WYARN and WY Dept. of Education
Disability	1995	1999	2002	2005
Autism	34	88	140	247
Deaf/Hard of Hearing	167	173	166	158
Mental Disability	660	691	616	571
Orthopedic Impairment	160	141	134	105
Other Health Impairment	541	829	1,103	1,437
Emotional Disability	901	936	994	956
Speech or Lang. Impairment	3,069	2,978	2,868	3,185
Learning Disability	5,667	6,001	5,369	4,787
Traumatic Brain Injury	71	83	76	63
Visual Disability	56	59	57	58
Deaf/Blind	0	1	0	0
Multiple Disabilities	N/A	N/A	97	113
Total with Disabilities	11,326	11,991	11,620	11,680