Where New Jersey students with disabilities spend their school days

Fewer than half of New Jersey's roughly 240,000 students with disabilities spend at least 80 percent of their day in a public school's general education classroom, meaning they are learning alongside peers without disabilities. More commonly, students with disabilities are in separate classrooms for large portions of the day or enrolled in private schools.

According to the U.S. Department of Education:
Separate School is a category that includes children with disabilities receiving special education and related services, at public expense, for greater than 50 percent of the school day in public or private separate schools. This may include children placed in: 1) public and private day schools for students with disabilities, 2) public and private day schools for students with disabilities for a portion of the school day (greater than 50 percent) and in regular school buildings for the remainder of the school day and 3) public and private residential facilities if the student does not live at the facility.
Parentally placed in private schools is a category that includes children who are enrolled by their parents or guardians in private, including religious, schools that meet the definition of elementary school or secondary school in the IDEA regulations, and whose basic education is paid through private resources and who received special education and related services at public expense from a local education agency or intermediate educational unit under a services plan. This includes children whose parents chose to home-school them but who receive special education and related services at the public expense. This category does not include children who are placed in private schools by the local education agency.
Chart: By MARINA VILLENEUVE, The Hechinger Report Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs Created with Datawrapper