The percentage of public community colleges with more than 3% of their students reporting a disability has decreased slightly, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Education.
In the 2020-21 academic year, 41.3% of community colleges indicated more the 3% of their students had reported a disability, dropping to 39.2% of the colleges in 2021-22. A decade earlier, only 27.9% of colleges had more than 3% of their students with a reported disability.
In the 2021-22 academic year, only 2.9% of public community colleges had 10% or more of their students reporting a disability — substantially lower than the 10.1% of public four-year colleges and 23.9% of private four-year colleges with 10% or more of their students reporting a disability. For-profit colleges had the lowest rate of students with disabilities, with only 4.5% of the institutions with more than 3% of their students reporting a disability.
Among public community college students reporting a disability in the 2019-20 academic year, depression was the most frequently cited disability (26.6%), followed by attention deficit disorder (ADD) at 20.9%. These data are based on the American Association of Community Colleges’ analysis of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study of 2019-20. The distribution of the main types of disabilities was similar for the other sectors of higher education, though the rates for depression and mental, emotional or psychiatric condition tended to be slightly higher for students at public four-year institutions than at public community colleges.
