Updated at 5:56 p.m., Thursday, February 1, 2007
Schools seeing more special-needs students
Advertiser Staff
Students with special needs — and multiple special needs — attending the state's public schools have increased in the past year, according to the 2006 Superintendent's Report released this afternoon at a Board of Education meeting. The report is a compilation of trends, scores and data from the past year.Changes over the past year include:
i Students with special needs accounted for 49 percent of the state's public school students in 2006 compared to 48 percent in 2005. Meanwhile, those with multiple special needs increased from 12 percent in 2005 to 13 percent last year.
i 86 percent of the state's teachers are fully licensed - compared to 85 percent in 2005 - but this is lower than the 87 percent in 2003.
i Enrollment in public schools continues to decline, with 181,406 students enrolled in 2006 compared to 181,897 in 2005 and 182,434 in 2004. Enrollment peaked in 1998 at 189,281 students.
i The graduation rate declined slightly between 2005 and 2006 with 79.2 percent of students graduating last year compared to 79.5 percent the year earlier.
i Meanwhile, the dropout rate climbed, going from 14.9 percent in 2005 to 15.7 percent last year.
