The purpose of this study was to determine whether a group of special education students (learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, and mildly mentally retarded) consisted of disproportionately large numbers of children who were relatively young when they entered school. The sample population consisted of 291 special education students enrolled in a school district with a total enrollment of 29,103 students. All students were classified as early-entering (EE) or late-entering (LE) children based on their chronological ages when they entered school. Separate chi-square analyses were conducted to investigate school entry age in the total group and in each category of exceptionality. Analyses were significant for the total group as well as for the learning disabled and emotionally disturbed samples, but not for the mildly retarded sample. When the learning disabled sample was divided into elementary and secondary groups, significant results were obtained only for the elementary group. Implications for parents and educators are discussed.
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