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Studies Show

• Only 27 percent of youth with disabilities graduate from high school compared to 75 percent of students without disabilities.
• Only 1 in 3 youth with disabilities receive job training.
• The unemployment rate for people with disabilities hovers between 50 and 75 percent.

In Mississippi

• There are an estimated 350,000 people with disabilities, including 40,000 with developmental disabilities—the highest rate of individuals with disabilities per population in the United States.
• The state’s rate of accident-related disabilities is one of the highest in the nation with approximately 130 spinal cord injuries and 5,000 cases of traumatic brain injury each year.
• The number of children receiving SSI—2.97 percent—is double the Southeastern average and triple the national average.
• In 2000, 62,153 children, birth through 21, were served by special education in the Mississippi public schools. This total includes learning disabilities, severe/low incidence disabilities, physical disabilities, vision and hearing impairments, emotional disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, mild to moderate disabilities, and autism.