New data from thousands of school districts across the nation is highlighting stark differences in the experiences of students with disabilities compared to their typically developing peers.

Children with disabilities are far more likely to be subject to restraint or seclusion, suspended, expelled, referred to law enforcement or arrested at school, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s most recent civil rights data collection.

The findings, released this month, are based on responses from 17,704 school districts accounting for more than 98,000 schools during the 2021–2022 academic year.

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights generally conducts the civil rights data collection every two years, querying all public schools and districts as well as charters, alternative schools, justice facilities and others receiving federal financial assistance about enrollment, student access to courses and teachers, discipline and much more.

The federal agency found that children served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act account for 14% of the nation’s 50 million public school students while another 3% are covered by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Nonetheless, 29% of students who received one or more out-of-school suspensions and 24% of those who were expelled had disabilities, according to the report. The trend extended to even the youngest learners with the Education Department finding that 41% of preschool students who were suspended and 74% of young children who were expelled were served under IDEA.

Similarly, K-12 students with individualized education programs, or IEPs, accounted for a quarter of those referred to law enforcement or arrested at school.

Students served under IDEA represented 28% of those who were mechanically restrained, 68% of seclusions and 76% of physical restraints, the report indicates.

“Public education promises to be an engine of the American Dream — making it possible for anyone to go as far as their dreams and talent can take them,” said outgoing Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “The newly released data show that we cannot be complacent — that inequities in access to educational opportunities based on race, sex and disability persist in school opportunities ranging from the number of STEM courses offered to our students to students’ experiences of suspensions in school.”