How common is mental retardation?
As many as 3 out of every 100 people in the country have mental retardation (The Arc, 2001). Nearly 613,000 children ages 6 to 21 have some level of mental retardation and need special education in school (Twenty-fourth Annual Report to Congress, U.S. Department of Education, 2002). In fact, 1 out of every 10 children who need special education has some form of mental retardation.
