ABSTRACT
Minority overrepresentation in special education is a significant but largely silent contributor to a quarter century of increasing learning disability (LD) prevalence and to the current diagnostic confusion about what LD is and how it should be identified. The sharp decline in mild mental retardation (MMR) prevalence is part of the story of increasing LD prevalence and diagnostic confusion. From 1976–77 when prevalence data were first collected by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to 1998–99, mental retardation (MR) declined from 969,547 to 613,207 students, or 36%. LD increased from 797,213 to 2,064,120 students, or 260%. These changes are even more impressive because they occurred during a period when children and youth with moderate, severe, and profound MR gained access to the public schools for the first time. Although the OSEP child count data do not differentiate between levels of MR, it is highly likely that the decline in MMR has been even greater than the overall MR decline.
