What do you know ? About Learning Disabilities

1. What do you know? About Learning Disabilities

2. Did you know…? As many as 1 in 5 people in the U.S. has a learning disability

3. That means, in Washington, 1,279,160 individuals live with learning disabilities And by the way… That’s more than a month’s worth of visitors to Disneyland

4. Did you know…? 51%of students receiving special education services through the public schools are identified as having learning disabilities (Source: 25th Annual Report to Congress, 2005)

5. Learning Disabilities Account for more than all other disabilities combined!! That’s more than all of these together: Autism Spectrum Mental Impairment Developmental Delay Physical Disability Visual Impairment Hearing Impairment ADHD Mental Retardation

6. Specific Learning Disabilities increased 22% between 1978 – 2003 Did you know…? • There was an increase of 38% in the last decade of this study alone (Source: National Institutes of Health, 2003)

7. Did you know…? There are nearly 3 million children (ages 6-21) with a diagnosed Specific LD Some perspective… They would fill up Qwest Field 45 times!!! These numbers do not include children in private and religious schools or home-schooled children (Source: 25th Annual Report to Congress, U.S. Department of Education, 2005)

8. “The U.S. Department of Education collects and publishes an array of data on these children and young adults (k-12)…”

9. “Once these students leave formal schooling, the data trail unfortunately disappears, making it virtually impossible to gather reliable data on this older community of citizens.” Dr. Sheldon Horowitz

10. Did you know…? 39%of children with learning disabilities drop out of high school (Source: Sheldon Horowitz, NCLD Director of Professional Services, LDNews, March 2006)

11. And naturally… Many of these children grow up and come to your programs as adults.

12. 30 to 80 percent of adult learners have learning challenges that negatively impact their learning ( http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/faqs.html#learning )

13. Adults with diagnosed or undiagnosed learning disabilities are estimated to make up about 50% of adult education students

14. Approximately 38 – 44% of TANF recipients are individuals with learning disabilities (Washington and Kansas TANF studies)

15. And… According to a 1997 survey, 50% of inmates in state or federal prisons, (Harlow) reported that they did not have a high school diploma.

16. Of this group, 66%were identified as having learning disabilities (Harlow, 1997)

17. To make matters even more challenging:

18. Few professionals are adequately trained to work with adults who display characteristics associated with learning disabilities • Few adult education systems have a process in place to identify and appropriately serve adults with learning disabilities

19. And yet… “The expectations placed on graduating high school students today, especially given the highly technical and increasingly specialized nature of the workforce, have never been higher.”

20. So… “The challenges faced by students with learning disabilities in high school and beyond are, in a word, enormous.” Dr. Sheldon Horowitz

21. Did you know…? Washington State has been working to address this need in adult basic education since 2000.

22. You are a part of that effort.