15% of North Allegheny student population is enrolled in special education, report shows

More students are participating in the special education program at North Allegheny, representing 15% of its student population, a slight increase from last year’s numbers, according to a 2025 enrollment and projections report presented by the district Oct. 15.

It’s the largest increase from last year to this school year, according to Yuko Wong, data manager for the North Allegheny School District.

This also is reflective of a statewide increase, as shown by the North Allegheny report, which uses data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

“We had the largest increase in special education students between last year to this school year, with 136 additional students in special education, bringing it closer to (the Allegheny) Intermediate average and state average,” Wong said.

The Allegheny Intermediate Unit 3 is a regional educational service agency and liaison between public and private schools and the state Department of Education, according to aiu3.net.

Overall, the district has 8,622 students, nine more than last year, and the highest enrollment number since the 2019-20 school year.

The North Allegheny internal enrollment report also included the number of students categorized by exceptionality in the current school year, with the most, or 372, listed as having a specific learning disability, then speech or language impairment at 343, and then autism at 217.

Other exceptionalities include emotional disturbance, intellectual disability, hearing impairment including deafness, other health impairments and blindness.

Fewer numbers are categorized with students having multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment and traumatic brain injury, according to Wong’s report.

The report also includes the number of students attending charter, homeschool and parochial schools, which has dropped from 1,017 in 2021 to 849 in the current school year. But this latter number is a small increase from last year’s 813 students attending these schools.

Specifically, 576 students attend private or parochial school, an increase of 24 from 2024-25. More students, or 175, are being homeschooled. That number has steadily increased from 88 students in 2019.

Wong said they are only aware of the students attending nonpublic schools who request transportation from North Allegheny. However, the number could be higher.

One notable drop is those students attending cyber or charter schools.

North Allegheny is becoming slightly more racially diverse as the number of students identified as Asian has grown from 12% to 20% of the student population compared to 13 years ago. It’s the second-largest race in the district, with caucasian students still predominant at 66%.

The next highest group is multiracial, followed by Hispanic, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaskan Native Indian or Alaskan Native, and then Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.

There are fewer students enrolled in the English Language Development program at North Allegheny. But of those who do, the highest languages spoken at home are Korean, Chinese or Mandarin, and Spanish, in that order.

The report can be found under the school board’s BoardDocs tab at northallegheny.org.