From the table below, expectations of the type of special students in the West Virginia public school systems can be obtained. The data were gathered by the West Virginia Department of Education in 1996 and can be used by science teachers in projecting the relative frequency and the types of special students that can be expected enter their classrooms.

DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIAL STUDENTS IN THE WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM
Type of Disability	Total	Percent
Specific Learning Disability	19,024	45.68
Communication Disorders	11,011	26.44
Mentally Impaired (Mild)	6,473	15.54
Behavior Disorders	1,987	4.77
Mentally Impaired (Moderate)	883	2.12
Deaf/Hard of Hearing	377	0.91
Mentally Impaired (Severe)	288	0.69
Orthopedically Impaired	219	0.53
Blind and Partially Sighted	199	0.48
Mentally Impaired (Profound)	196	0.47
Autism	130	0.31
Traumatic Brain Injury	80	0.19
Deaf-Blind	24	0.06
Other Health Impaired	754	1.81
TOTAL	41,645	100.00

In the table below are listed the categories, numbers, and percentages of students with disabilities nationwide. These data are from the US Department of Education for 1996.

DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES PUBLIC SCHOOLS SYSTEM
Type of Disability	Total	Percent
Specific Learning Disability	2,064,892	48.47
Speech/Language Impairment	976,186	22.92
Mental Retardation	566,150	13.30
Serious Emotional Disorders	382,570	8.98
Multiple Disabilities	87,956	2.07
Hearing Impairments	58,164	1.37
Other Health Impairments	53,165	1.24
Orthopedic Impairments	47,999	1.13
Visual Impairments	22,960	0.54
Deaf-Blindness	1,634	0.06
TOTAL	4,260,000	100.06

The table below shows the proportion of individuals who are disabled by their ethnic background. These data are for all Americans not just students, but undoubtedly represent the relative proportions in the student population in the Nation.

DISABILITY BY ETHNIC BACKGROUND IN THE UNITED STATES 1994
Ethnicity	Percent
Caucasian Americans	76.1
African Americans	13.3
Hispanic Americans	8.3
Asian Americans	1.8
Native Americans	0.8