Conference: Child Care and Early Education Policy Research Consortium
Date: April 2019
Presenters: Cornelia Taylor

This presentation shared recent data on the inclusion of children with disabilities in early care and education setting using data from IDEA 616 and 618 data collections and the Head Start Program Information Report. Data show that there has been very little change in the % of children who receive the majority of IDEA services in regular early childhood programs over time. There is a lot of variation across states in the % of children who receive the majority of IDEA services in regular early childhood programs. The data then compare the representation of different disability types across Head Start and IDEA funded programs. Those data show that children with speech language impairments are more likely than children with other disabilities types to be enrolled in Head Start (IDEA 42.4%, HS 56.5%) whereas children with autism are less likely to be enrolled in a Head Start (IDEA 10.8%, HS 3.8%). The conclusion is that there are many opportunities to increase the inclusion of children with disabilities in regular education settings including Head Start.

Recent data on the inclusion of children with disabilities in early care and education settings