85.2% of students with hearing impairments who left special education and school in 2022-23 did so with a regular high school diploma, almost ten points above the 75.8% recorded for all students with disabilities (U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025). The picture after graduation is less comfortable: 23.9% of deaf adults held a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2024, and 57.7% were employed, a record high that still sits more than fifteen points below hearing adults (National Deaf Center, Deaf Postsecondary Data from the American Community Survey 2026). The school-age population itself is small and shrinking as a share of special education: about 70,000 children ages 3 to 21 were served under the hearing impairment category in 2022-23 (NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023). We aggregated data from the NCES Digest of Education Statistics, the U.S. Department of Education’s Annual Report to Congress on IDEA, the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes, CDC’s Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program, the Gallaudet University and RIT/NTID annual reports, and peer-reviewed studies in Pediatrics and the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.
A note on terms: federal data use the IDEA category label “hearing impairment”, which includes deafness. The National Deaf Center uses “deaf” for everyone who answers yes to the Census question about being deaf or having serious difficulty hearing. This article keeps each source’s own label.
TL;DR
- About 70,000 children ages 3 to 21 were served under IDEA in the hearing impairment category in 2022-23, down from 77,000 in 2012-13 (NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.30).
- Hearing impairment accounts for 0.9% of all students served under IDEA, down from 1.2% a decade earlier (NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.30).
- 65.8% of students with hearing impairments spent 80% or more of the day in a regular class in fall 2023, and 11.6% were in other environments such as separate and residential schools, against 4.7% of all students with disabilities (U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025).
- 8.2% of students with hearing impairments attended a separate school in fall 2022, against 2.4% of all students with disabilities (NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.60).
- 85.2% of exiting students with hearing impairments graduated with a regular diploma in 2022-23, up from 74.2% in 2013-14 (U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025).
- 23.9% of deaf adults held a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2024 (National Deaf Center, Deaf Postsecondary Data from the American Community Survey 2026).
- 57.7% of deaf adults were employed in 2024, the highest rate on record and 8.3 points above 2015 (National Deaf Center, Deaf Employment Reaches Historic High 2026).
- Deaf and hearing full-time workers report the same median annual income of $60,000 (National Deaf Center, Deaf Employment Reaches Historic High 2026).
- Schools employed 6,405 FTE interpreters for IDEA Part B in fall 2022, and 91.0% were fully certified, the lowest share of any related-service profession (U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025).
- Gallaudet reported 1,263 degree-seeking students and NTID 1,176 students in their latest annual reports (Gallaudet University, Annual Report of Achievements FY2024; RIT/NTID, Annual Report FY2025).
- Only 40.9% of infants identified as deaf or hard of hearing in 2022 were enrolled in early intervention before 6 months of age (CDC, Hearing Screening and Follow-up Survey 2022).
- Children enrolled in early intervention before 6 months had 1.64 times the odds of proficient third grade reading (95% CI 1.06 to 2.57) in an Ohio cohort of 412 (Meinzen-Derr et al., Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention 2025).
1. Enrollment: How Many Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students IDEA Counts
The hearing impairment category is one of the few in special education that has shrunk in absolute terms while the system around it grew. Total IDEA enrollment rose from 6,429,000 to 7,526,000 between 2012-13 and 2022-23, while the hearing impairment count fell from 77,000 to about 70,000 (NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.30). The result is a category that now represents 0.9% of students served, which matters for staffing: a district can go years with a handful of deaf students, or none.
The count is also narrower than the population it suggests. It captures students whose primary disability is hearing impairment (Epstein et al., Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 2022), so a deaf child reported under a different primary category does not appear in it. Within racial and ethnic groups, hearing impairment was the reported category for 1.9% of Asian students served under IDEA and 0.6% of Black or African American students in fall 2023 (U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Children ages 3-21 served under IDEA Part B, hearing impairment, 2022-23 | 70,000 (reported in thousands) | NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.30 |
| Same category, 2012-13 / 1976-77 (first year of the series) | 77,000 / 88,000 | NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.30 |
| Median annual number of students ages 6-21 with hearing impairment as primary disability, 2012-2018 (range) | 67,655 (64,812 to 68,922) | Epstein et al., Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 2022 |
| Hearing impairment as a share of all children served, 2022-23 vs 2012-13 | 0.9% vs 1.2% | NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.30 |
| Children ages 3-21 served under deaf-blindness, 2022-23 | 2,000 (reported in thousands) | NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.30 |
| Students ages 6-21 with hearing impairments, fall 2023 | 60,599 | UNH Institute on Disability, Annual Disability Statistics Compendium 2026 (OSEP Section 618 data) |
| Students ages 6-21 with deaf-blindness, fall 2023 | 1,726 | UNH Institute on Disability, Annual Disability Statistics Compendium 2026 (OSEP Section 618 data) |
| All children ages 3-21 served under IDEA Part B, 2022-23 | 7,526,000 | NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.30 |
The three counts are not interchangeable. The Digest covers ages 3 to 21 and rounds to thousands, the Compendium table covers ages 6 to 21, and the Annual Report to Congress uses ages 5 (school age) through 21 and gives only the share: 0.9% of 7,236,548 students in fall 2023. The primary table is the NCES Digest Table 204.30.
2. Placement: General Education Classrooms vs Schools for the Deaf
Two things are true at once. Most deaf and hard of hearing students now spend most of the day in a regular classroom, and they remain far more likely than other students with disabilities to be educated somewhere else entirely. 11.6% of students with hearing impairments were in “other environments” in fall 2023, against 4.7% of all students with disabilities (U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025). That category covers separate schools, residential facilities, homebound or hospital placement, correctional facilities, and parentally placed private school students.
The direction of travel is steady. The share in a regular class for 80% or more of the day moved from 57.8% in 2012 to 62.0% in 2017 (Epstein et al., Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 2022), then 65.2% in fall 2022 (NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.60) and 65.8% in fall 2023. Residential placement fell from 3.4% to 2.0% across 2012-2017 in the Epstein analysis and stood at 1.5% in fall 2022 in the NCES table. The specialized sector is still visible: the Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf listed 31 schools on its accredited schools page when we checked in October 2026, and Gallaudet’s two demonstration schools enrolled 91 students (Kendall Demonstration Elementary School) and 139 students (Model Secondary School for the Deaf) in 2023-24 (Gallaudet University, Annual Report of Achievements FY2024).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Hearing impairment, fall 2023: regular class 80% or more / 40-79% / less than 40% of the day / other environments | 65.8% / 13.1% / 9.5% / 11.6% | U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025 |
| Deaf-blindness, fall 2023: regular class 80% or more / less than 40% of the day / other environments | 31.1% / 29.2% / 27.4% | U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025 |
| Hearing impairment, fall 2022: regular class 80% or more / 40-79% / less than 40% of the day | 65.2% / 13.5% / 9.7% | NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.60 |
| Separate school / separate residential facility, fall 2022: hearing impairment vs all disabilities | 8.2% / 1.5% vs 2.4% / 0.2% | NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.60 |
| Hearing impairment: 80% or more in general class, 2012 vs 2017 | 57.8% vs 62.0% | Epstein et al., Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 2022 |
| Hearing impairment: residential facility placement, 2012 vs 2017 | 3.4% vs 2.0% | Epstein et al., Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 2022 |
| Enrollment at Gallaudet’s demonstration schools, 2023-24: Kendall Demonstration Elementary School / Model Secondary School for the Deaf | 91 / 139 | Gallaudet University, Annual Report of Achievements FY2024 |
| Schools listed on the CEASD accredited schools page, October 2026 | 31 | CEASD, Accredited Schools 2026 |
Placement percentages say where a student sits, not whether the student can follow the lesson. That depends on the interpreter, captioning and teacher supply covered in section 6. The environment breakdown by category is in NCES Digest Table 204.60, and the fall 2023 update is in the 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA.
3. High School Completion and Dropout Rates
On paper, students with hearing impairments are among the strongest finishers in special education. The diploma share rose from 74.2% in 2013-14 to 85.2% in 2022-23, and the dropout share fell from 9.4% to 6.8% (U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025). NCES noted that in 2021-22 hearing impairments had the highest graduation percentage of any disability type, at 84% (NCES, Condition of Education, Students With Disabilities).
The caveat is methodological and it is a large one. These are percentages of students who exited in a given year, not four-year cohort rates. Epstein and colleagues warn that IDEA exit rates may be inflated relative to general-population rates and cite Minnesota, where the four-year cohort rate was 74% for deaf and hard of hearing students against 85% in general education, with a six-year rate of 80% (Epstein et al., Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 2022). A diploma also does not guarantee a next step: 22.7% of deaf youth ages 16 to 24 were neither enrolled nor working.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Graduated with a regular diploma / dropped out, 2022-23: hearing impairment vs all disabilities | 85.2% / 6.8% vs 75.8% / 13.9% | U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025 |
| Hearing impairment, 2013-14: graduated / dropped out | 74.2% / 9.4% | U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025 |
| Hearing impairment exiters ages 16-21, 2012-2018 medians: regular diploma / certificate / dropped out | 86.8% / 5.1% / 3.9% | Epstein et al., Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 2022 |
| Graduation percentage by disability type, 2021-22: hearing impairments (highest) vs multiple disabilities (lowest) | 84% vs 40% | NCES, Condition of Education, Students With Disabilities |
| Students ages 14-21 with hearing impairments who exited school, 2021-22 | 4,498 (3,773 with a regular diploma, 331 dropped out) | NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 219.90 |
| Minnesota four-year cohort graduation rate: deaf and hard of hearing vs general education | 74% vs 85% | Epstein et al., Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 2022 |
| Deaf youth ages 16-24 neither enrolled nor working, vs national average | 22.7% vs 12.6% | National Deaf Center, Deaf Youth Report 2023 (ACS 2017-2021) |
| Deaf youth ages 16-24 not working or enrolled in college: no additional disabilities / deafblind / deafdisabled | 13.8% / 32.3% / 34.9% | National Deaf Center, Deaf Youth Report 2023 (ACS 2017-2021) |
For the much smaller deaf-blindness category, the 2022-23 diploma share was 72.1%, a figure the Department flags as based on fewer than 200 exiters (U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025). The exit counts by disability are in NCES Digest Table 219.90, and the National Deaf Center’s Deaf Youth Report covers what happens between 16 and 24.
4. College Enrollment: Gallaudet, NTID, and Mainstream Campuses
The two federally supported institutions dominate public attention and enroll a sliver of the population. Gallaudet’s FY2024 report shows 1,263 degree-seeking students and NTID’s FY2025 report shows 1,176 students in fall 2024. Added together that is 2,439 students (1,263 plus 1,176), a total that includes hearing students such as the 255 at Gallaudet and the 152 in NTID’s interpreting bachelor’s program. The National Deaf Center puts the national figure at more than 200,000 deaf students enrolled in college (National Deaf Center, Supporting Deaf College Students 2024, citing Bloom and Palmer 2023). Nearly every deaf undergraduate is on a mainstream campus, relying on a disability services office.
That office is often working at very small scale: about half of surveyed disability services directors said their institution had 10 or fewer deaf students (National Deaf Center, Supporting Deaf College Students 2024). Deaf students gave campus access and inclusion an overall grade of D, 65 out of 100, in the National Deaf Center’s access and inclusion survey, and 45.8% of deaf college students have an additional disability. NTID shows what concentration buys: its baccalaureate students graduate at 73% against 65% at four-year institutions nationally (RIT/NTID, Annual Report FY2025). Its sub-baccalaureate graduation rate, 32%, trails the national two-year figure.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Deaf students enrolled in college nationally | More than 200,000 | National Deaf Center, Supporting Deaf College Students 2024 (citing Bloom and Palmer 2023) |
| Share of all college students who are deaf | 1.4% | National Deaf Center, Deaf College Student Data (NCES undergraduate data, Bloom and Palmer 2023) |
| Deaf college students pursuing associate vs bachelor’s degrees | 45.8% vs 42.1% | National Deaf Center, Deaf College Student Data (Bloom and Palmer 2023) |
| Enrolled in postsecondary education and training: deaf vs hearing people | About 5% vs 9.9% | National Deaf Center, Deaf College Student Data (ACS, Bloom, Palmer and Winninghoff 2024) |
| Gallaudet degree-seeking students (undergraduate / graduate) | 1,263 (812 / 451) | Gallaudet University, Annual Report of Achievements FY2024 |
| Gallaudet students identifying as deaf or hard of hearing vs hearing | 988 vs 255 | Gallaudet University, Annual Report of Achievements FY2024 |
| NTID enrollment, fall 2024 (associate programs / baccalaureate in other RIT colleges / ASL-English Interpretation) | 1,176 (404 / 437 / 152) | RIT/NTID, Annual Report FY2025 |
| NTID graduation rate vs national: baccalaureate / sub-baccalaureate | 73% vs 65% / 32% vs 39% | RIT/NTID, Annual Report FY2025 |
NTID’s federal appropriation was $92.5 million for FY2025, with $83.0 million identified for operations. The full tables are in the RIT/NTID Annual Report FY2025 and the Gallaudet FY2024 report summary; the national figures are on the National Deaf Center’s deaf college student data page.
5. Degree Attainment, Employment, and Earnings
Attainment is rising and the gap is not closing. The deaf bachelor’s rate went from 18.8% in 2017 (National Deaf Center, Deaf People and Educational Attainment in the United States 2019) to 21.9% in 2021 and 23.9% in 2024, a gain of 5.1 points over the period (23.9 minus 18.8). Hearing adults moved from 34.0% to 37.3% between 2017 and 2021, so the distance between the two groups barely moved: 15.2 points in 2017 and 15.4 points in 2021. Employment tells the same story. The 2024 rate is a record, and the National Deaf Center reports that the gap with hearing adults has stayed above fifteen percentage points year after year.
The earnings line is the one that changes the argument. Deaf and hearing people who work full time report the same median annual income, $60,000 (National Deaf Center, Deaf Employment Reaches Historic High 2026). The deficit is in getting into full-time work, not in what the work pays once someone is there. Some deaf workers build their own route: 10.6% of employed deaf adults are self-employed, against 9.1% of hearing adults. Education is the strongest lever in the data. Among rural deaf people, employment rises from 46.6% for those with a high school education or higher to 67.3% for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher, and NTID reports a 93% employment rate for its 2024 deaf and hard of hearing graduates.
Disparities inside the deaf population are wide as well. In the 2021 data, 41.7% of Black deaf people were employed against 56.0% of white deaf people, and 48.3% of deaf women against 56.8% of deaf men (National Deaf Center, Data Dashboard release 2023).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Deaf adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher, 2024 | 23.9% | National Deaf Center, Deaf Postsecondary Data from the American Community Survey 2026 |
| Bachelor’s degree or higher, 2021, ages 25-64: deaf vs hearing | 21.9% vs 37.3% | National Deaf Center, Data Dashboard release 2023 (ACS 2021) |
| Four-year degree or more, 2024, ages 25+: people with any disability vs without | 21.9% (13.4% + 8.5%) vs 40.1% (24.0% + 16.1%) | UNH Institute on Disability, Annual Disability Statistics Compendium 2026 (ACS 2024) |
| Deaf adults employed, 2024 | 57.7% | National Deaf Center, Deaf Employment Reaches Historic High 2026 (ACS 2024) |
| Change in deaf employment rate since 2015 | +8.3 percentage points | National Deaf Center, Deaf Employment Reaches Historic High 2026 |
| Median annual income, full-time workers: deaf and hearing | $60,000 for both | National Deaf Center, Deaf Employment Reaches Historic High 2026 |
| Employment rate, NTID deaf and hard of hearing graduates of 2024 | 93% | RIT/NTID, Annual Report FY2025 |
| Rural deaf employment: high school or higher vs bachelor’s or higher | 46.6% vs 67.3% | National Deaf Center, Rural Deaf Experiences 2024 (ACS 2018-2022) |
Geography adds a further penalty: 49.4% of deaf people in rural areas were employed against 54.3% in metropolitan areas, and the rural deaf bachelor’s rate was 13.0% against 22.5% (National Deaf Center, Rural Deaf Experiences 2024). The March 2026 release is on the National Deaf Center site, and the interactive figures are on the NDC data dashboard.
6. Interpreters, Teachers of the Deaf, and Campus Access Services
A general education placement only works if the access workforce exists, and the federal count of that workforce is small. Schools employed 6,405 full-time-equivalent interpreters for students served under IDEA Part B in fall 2022. Their 91.0% fully certified share was the lowest of the 11 related-service personnel categories the Department tracks, where every other category was at 95.6% or higher (U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025). “Fully certified” means meeting each state’s own standard, and those standards vary; our roundup of sign language interpreter credentialing statistics covers the credential side.
Skill is a separate question from certification, and the best national evidence on it is old. Most recent available data: a 2006 study of approximately 2,100 educational interpreters found that approximately 60% had inadequate skills to provide full access (Schick, Williams and Kupermintz, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2006). The teacher pipeline has a similar evidence problem. A 2025 update found that deaf education teacher preparation programs have continued to close since the previous survey in 2010 while demand for teachers remains steady (Scott et al., Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2025). On college campuses the pressure shows up as outsourcing: only 24.8% of surveyed institutions had staff interpreters, and 87.5% had at least one course interpreted remotely.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| FTE interpreters employed for IDEA Part B, fall 2022 (fully certified) | 6,405 (5,828, or 91.0%) | U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025 |
| FTE audiologists employed for IDEA Part B, fall 2022 (share fully certified) | 1,474 (97.8%) | U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025 |
| Educational interpreters with inadequate skills for full access (about 2,100 evaluated) | Approximately 60% | Schick, Williams and Kupermintz, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2006 |
| Interpreter and translator jobs, all settings, 2025 (share in educational services) | 73,900 (15%) | BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2026 |
| Interpreters and translators: median annual pay, May 2025 / projected job growth, 2025-35 | $60,170 / 2% | BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2026 |
| Students majoring in deaf education in 2006 and 2009, relative to 1973-1979, as a share of the U.S. college population | About one fourth | Dolman, American Annals of the Deaf 2010 |
| Deaf education teacher preparation programs in the United States | 68 | Stryker, American Annals of the Deaf 2011 |
| Colleges with staff interpreters / with at least one course interpreted remotely | 24.8% / 87.5% | National Deaf Center, Supporting Deaf College Students 2024 |
The college survey is small (65 disability services professionals, April 2023 to May 2024), but its direction is consistent: about a quarter of institutions (23% to 27%) were not always able to fill speech-to-text or interpreting requests. Speech-to-text here includes CART, the stenographic service also used in courtrooms and covered in our CART realtime translation statistics. The Dolman and Stryker figures are 15 or more years old and are flagged as the most recent available counts; the BLS figures cover all interpreters and translators, not sign language alone. Sources: the 47th Annual Report to Congress, the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, and Scott et al. 2025.
7. Early Identification and Language Outcomes
The school statistics above are shaped years before kindergarten. Newborn screening is close to universal, with more than 98% of U.S. newborns screened, and yet the follow-through thins out at each step. Of 65,128 infants who did not pass screening in 2022, 39.9% had a diagnosis before 3 months of age. Of the 6,272 infants identified as deaf or hard of hearing, only 40.9% were enrolled in early intervention before 6 months (CDC, Hearing Screening and Follow-up Survey 2022). The 2021 figure was 42.2%, so the benchmark did not improve year over year. Our pediatric hearing screening and EHDI statistics cover the screening stage in more detail.
Timing has measurable academic consequences. In a 12-state study of 448 children with bilateral hearing loss, a model that included meeting the 1-3-6 benchmarks accounted for 41% of the variance in vocabulary outcomes (Yoshinaga-Itano et al., Pediatrics 2017). A 2025 Ohio linkage study carried the question into elementary school: 55.8% of children enrolled in early intervention before 6 months read at a proficient level or above in third grade, close to the 58.9% of all Ohio third graders, against 45.3% of children enrolled later (Meinzen-Derr et al., Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention 2025).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. newborns screened for hearing loss, 2022 | More than 98% | CDC, EHDI Annual Data 2022 |
| Infants identified as deaf or hard of hearing, 2022 (prevalence per 1,000 screened) | 6,272 (1.7) | CDC, Hearing Screening and Follow-up Survey 2022 |
| Infants not passing screening who were diagnosed before 3 months, 2022 | 25,968 of 65,128 (39.9%) | CDC, Hearing Screening and Follow-up Survey 2022 |
| Identified infants enrolled in early intervention, 2022 | 3,783 (60.3%) | CDC, Hearing Screening and Follow-up Survey 2022 |
| Identified infants enrolled before 6 months of age, 2022 | 2,564 (40.9%) | CDC, Hearing Screening and Follow-up Survey 2022 |
| Identified infants with no early intervention due to loss to follow-up or documentation, 2022 | 1,220 (19.5%) | CDC, Hearing Screening and Follow-up Survey 2022 |
| Variance in vocabulary outcomes explained (448 children, 12 states) | 41% | Yoshinaga-Itano et al., Pediatrics 2017 |
| Third grade reading proficient or above: early intervention before 6 months vs later (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.06 to 2.57) | 55.8% vs 45.3% | Meinzen-Derr et al., Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention 2025 |
The Ohio sample is limited to children in publicly funded settings or with an IEP, and the authors had no data on communication modality or hearing technology, so the result describes an association in one state. CDC’s current summary is on its EHDI data page, with the 2022 early intervention table in the CDC archive. The studies are Yoshinaga-Itano et al. 2017 and Meinzen-Derr et al. 2025.
Summary: Deaf & Hard of Hearing Student Education by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Children ages 3-21 served under IDEA, hearing impairment, 2022-23 (share of all IDEA students) | 70,000 (0.9%) | NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.30 |
| Students ages 6-21 with hearing impairments / deaf-blindness, fall 2023 | 60,599 / 1,726 | UNH Institute on Disability, Annual Disability Statistics Compendium 2026 |
| Hearing impairment, fall 2023: regular class 80% or more of the day / other environments | 65.8% / 11.6% | U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025 |
| In a separate school, fall 2022: hearing impairment vs all disabilities | 8.2% vs 2.4% | NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.60 |
| Graduated with a regular diploma / dropped out, 2022-23: hearing impairment vs all disabilities | 85.2% / 6.8% vs 75.8% / 13.9% | U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025 |
| Minnesota four-year cohort graduation rate: deaf and hard of hearing vs general education | 74% vs 85% | Epstein et al., Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 2022 |
| Deaf youth ages 16-24 neither enrolled nor working | 22.7% | National Deaf Center, Deaf Youth Report 2023 |
| Deaf students enrolled in college nationally | More than 200,000 | National Deaf Center, Supporting Deaf College Students 2024 |
| Gallaudet degree-seeking students | 1,263 | Gallaudet University, Annual Report of Achievements FY2024 |
| NTID enrollment, fall 2024 | 1,176 | RIT/NTID, Annual Report FY2025 |
| Deaf adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher, 2024 | 23.9% | National Deaf Center, Deaf Postsecondary Data from the American Community Survey 2026 |
| Bachelor’s degree or higher, 2021, ages 25-64: deaf vs hearing | 21.9% vs 37.3% | National Deaf Center, Data Dashboard release 2023 (ACS 2021) |
| Deaf adults employed, 2024 | 57.7% | National Deaf Center, Deaf Employment Reaches Historic High 2026 |
| Median annual income, full-time workers, deaf and hearing | $60,000 | National Deaf Center, Deaf Employment Reaches Historic High 2026 |
| FTE interpreters employed for IDEA Part B, fall 2022 (fully certified) | 6,405 (91.0%) | U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA 2025 |
| Colleges with staff interpreters | 24.8% | National Deaf Center, Supporting Deaf College Students 2024 |
| Infants identified as deaf or hard of hearing, 2022 | 6,272 | CDC, Hearing Screening and Follow-up Survey 2022 |
| Identified infants enrolled in early intervention before 6 months, 2022 | 40.9% | CDC, Hearing Screening and Follow-up Survey 2022 |
| Third grade reading proficient or above: early vs later early intervention | 55.8% vs 45.3% | Meinzen-Derr et al., Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention 2025 |
Methodology and Sources
We collected figures from federal statistical tables, the Department of Education’s report to Congress, institutional annual reports, and peer-reviewed studies, and kept only numbers we could read in the source document. Where a percentage is our own arithmetic, the inputs are shown next to it. Older data points are labeled as the most recent available.
- NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.30: children ages 3 to 21 served under IDEA Part B by type of disability, 1976-77 through 2022-23.
- NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.60: educational environment by type of disability, fall 2022.
- NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 219.90: students ages 14 to 21 exiting school by exit reason and disability, 2021-22.
- NCES, Condition of Education, Students With Disabilities: graduation percentage by disability type.
- U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of IDEA, 2025: fall 2023 educational environments (Exhibit 31), 2013-14 through 2022-23 graduation and dropout by category (Exhibits 40 to 42), and fall 2022 related-services personnel (Exhibit 45).
- University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability, Annual Disability Statistics Compendium 2026, Section 13: fall 2023 counts by category for ages 6 to 21, compiled from OSEP IDEA Section 618 data tables, and 2024 American Community Survey attainment for people with and without disabilities (Tables 13.8 and 13.9).
- National Deaf Center, Deaf Employment Reaches Historic High as Workforce Gaps Persist (March 2026) and the NDC Data Dashboard (Bloom, Palmer and Winninghoff 2026, 2024 American Community Survey).
- National Deaf Center, Data Dashboard release (January 2023): 2021 American Community Survey comparisons.
- National Deaf Center, Deaf People and Educational Attainment in the United States: 2019 (Garberoglio, Palmer, Cawthon and Sales; 2017 American Community Survey).
- National Deaf Center, Deaf College Student Data and Research Findings, Supporting Deaf College Students 2024, Deaf Youth Report 2023, and Rural Deaf Experiences 2024.
- Gallaudet University, Annual Report of Achievements FY2024: enrollment and Clerc Center demonstration schools.
- RIT/NTID, Annual Report FY2025: enrollment, persistence, graduation, employment and appropriation.
- CDC, Data and Statistics on Hearing Loss in Children and the 2022 Hearing Screening and Follow-up Survey early intervention summary.
- Epstein et al., Educational Environments and Secondary School Outcomes Among Students Who Are D/deaf and Hard of Hearing in Special Education, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 2022.
- Yoshinaga-Itano et al., Early Hearing Detection and Vocabulary of Children With Hearing Loss, Pediatrics 2017.
- Meinzen-Derr et al., Third Grade Reading Proficiency in Deaf or Hard of Hearing Children who Received Early Intervention, Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention 2025.
- Schick, Williams and Kupermintz, Look Who’s Being Left Behind, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2006.
- Scott et al., Updates and current trends in deaf education teacher preparation programs, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2025; Dolman, Enrollment trends in deaf education teacher preparation programs 1973-2009, American Annals of the Deaf 2010; Stryker, Baseline data on distance education offerings in deaf education teacher preparation programs, American Annals of the Deaf 2011.
- BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Interpreters and Translators (page last modified August 27, 2026).
- CEASD, Accredited Schools: list of accredited schools for the deaf, counted in October 2026.
- Data watch: three federal counts of the same category disagree because they cover different ages (about 70,000 for ages 3 to 21 in 2022-23 in the NCES Digest; 60,599 for ages 6 to 21 in fall 2023 in the UNH Compendium; 0.9% of 7,236,548 students ages 5 to 21 in the Annual Report to Congress, which excludes Iowa and New Mexico from that denominator). Graduation figures also differ slightly by source for the same year: the Annual Report to Congress gives 83.7% for hearing impairment in 2021-22, while the counts in NCES Table 219.90 work out to 83.9% (3,773 of 4,498). IDEA graduation percentages are exit-based, not cohort-based. National Deaf Center national figures use 1-year American Community Survey estimates and its state figures use 5-year estimates, so its 2024 bachelor’s rate (23.9%) differs from its 2020-2024 average (22.1%); the dashboard excerpt we read gives the 2024 figure without restating the age band, and the March 2026 release refers to both 2024 survey data and “2025 data” for self-employment. For NTID we publish only the fall 2024 total (1,176, which matches the sum of the report’s program-by-program breakdown); the report’s table of deaf and hard of hearing students by term has column headers we could not confirm, so no deaf or hard of hearing headcount for NTID is given here, and the Gallaudet and NTID totals in section 4 include hearing students. The latest national counts of educational interpreter skill (2006) and teacher preparation programs (2010 and 2011) are well over three years old, and the 2025 update by Scott et al. is paywalled beyond its abstract. The Gallaudet FY2025 Annual Report of Achievements has been published but we could not read it, so FY2024 figures are used. CDC had posted 2022 as its latest EHDI data year when we checked.
Last updated: October 11, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next refresh is expected when NCES publishes the next edition of Digest of Education Statistics Tables 204.30 and 204.60 and the National Deaf Center refreshes its dashboard with 2025 American Community Survey data.