This digest presents summary statistics addressing the following questions: (1) "How are children with disabilities defined?" (2) "Who are the students served?" (3) "Where are these students receiving their special education?" and (4) "How many teachers are needed?" The digest also examines past and present trends and their implications for the future of special education. Trends identified include: a possible future decrease in special education students as prereferral interventions serve "hard to teach" students; a continuing decrease in the number of students identified as mentally retarded (possibly due to more restrictive standards, a corresponding increased number of students identified as learning disabled, and avoidance of overrepresentation of minority students as mentally retarded); a possible increase in the number of children served due to prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol; and increased numbers of very young children served as a result of federal mandates. Includes 10 references. (DB)