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County data · Updated from public sources

Santa Clara County autism and special education data

Public figures from California's schools, its regional center system, and the Census Bureau. Each number shows who counted it, when, and what it does not tell you.

Students in special education · 2025-2630,015
Primary category: autism · 2025-267,310
Autism share of special education24.4%
Public school enrollment, TK–12227,187
Mission Santa Clara de Asís on the Santa Clara University campus
Photo: JaGa, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Public schools · CDE

What public schools report

On Census Day each October, California public schools report how many students have an active IEP, grouped by each student's primary disability category. Each student is counted once.

Students whose primary category is autism7,3102025-26 school year · Census Day Oct 1, 2025

5,550 in 2022-23

California Department of Education
Students receiving special education30,0152025-26 school year · Census Day Oct 1, 2025

28,175 in 2022-23

California Department of Education
Share of special education under autism24.4%2025-26 school year · Census Day Oct 1, 2025

California overall: 23.3%

California Department of Education

What this measures: Counts students whose primary special-education eligibility category is reported by public schools on Census Day. It is not a count of all autistic children, not a clinical diagnosis count, and not a prevalence rate.

Students in the autism category, by school yearSanta Clara County, all public schools including charters
02,0004,0006,0008,0002022-232023-242024-252025-267,310
Show the numbers
PeriodSanta Clara County
2022-235,550
2023-246,215
2024-256,726
2025-267,310
Autism share of special educationCounty compared with the statewide figure, same definition
0%10%20%30%40%2022-232023-242024-252025-2624.4%23.3%
Show the numbers
PeriodSanta Clara CountyCalifornia
2022-2319.7%18.5%
2023-2421.1%20.0%
2024-2522.6%21.7%
2025-2624.4%23.3%
Special education by primary category, 2025-26Students with an IEP, by the one category schools record as primary
  • Specific learning disability8,711
  • Autism7,310
  • Speech or language impairment5,593
  • Other health impairment5,145
  • Intellectual disability1,177
  • Emotional disturbance1,013
  • Hard of hearing302
  • Multiple disabilities300
  • Orthopedic impairment244
  • Visual impairment99
  • Deaf / hearing impairment70
  • Traumatic brain injury39
  • Established medical disabilitySuppressed
  • Deaf-blindnessSuppressed
Special education by age, 2025-26All disability categories combined. CDE does not publish autism by age in this file.
  • Ages 3–53,149
  • Ages 6–1214,891
  • Ages 13–1811,277
  • Ages 19+ (typically 19–22)698

For scale: 227,187 students were enrolled in Santa Clara County public schools (TK–12) on Census Day 2025-26. We don't divide one figure by the other, because special education also serves preschool and adult students and is not a measure of how common autism is.

School districts and local education agencies, 2025-26

CDE publishes district figures separately. They are not designed to add up to the county figure. Cells marked suppressed were withheld by CDE to protect student privacy.

“Evaluations on time” is the share of initial evaluations where the district decided eligibility within 60 days (Indicator 11, target 100%). Reported compliance is not the same as appointment wait time.

District or agencySpecial educationPrimary category: autismAutism shareEvaluations on time (2024-25 report)
San Jose Unified3,62580122.1%90.7%
East Side Union High2,90150917.5%85.5%
Santa Clara Unified2,24662627.9%98.0%
Santa Clara County Office of Education1,86346324.9%Not calculated (too few children)
Gilroy Unified1,76735119.9%89.0%
Alum Rock Union Elementary1,28132525.4%99.3%
Oak Grove Elementary1,19537531.4%93.1%
Franklin-McKinley Elementary1,16735630.5%99.2%
Campbell Union High1,13716514.5%91.9%
Cupertino Union1,13734430.3%99.1%
Morgan Hill Unified1,12522319.8%93.2%
Palo Alto Unified1,10825523.0%99.5%
Milpitas Unified1,00634634.4%96.0%
Evergreen Elementary93329331.4%96.7%
Fremont Union High88718220.5%97.1%
Sunnyvale87421424.5%99.7%
Campbell Union75822429.6%96.3%
Berryessa Union Elementary69322732.8%98.2%
Union Elementary65016725.7%99.4%
Mountain View Whisman58615626.6%97.7%
Moreland58316127.6%100.0%
Mountain View-Los Altos Union High4718317.6%100.0%
Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High3986716.8%100.0%
Cambrian3848221.4%98.1%
Los Altos Elementary2988628.9%100.0%
Mount Pleasant Elementary2796924.7%90.5%
Los Gatos Union Elementary2314921.2%98.6%
Saratoga Union Elementary1613622.4%100.0%
Orchard Elementary944042.6%100.0%
Loma Prieta Joint Union Elementary58SuppressedSuppressedNot calculated (too few children)
SBE - KIPP Navigate College Prep56SuppressedSuppressedNot available
Luther Burbank511529.4%Not calculated (too few children)
Lakeside Joint12SuppressedSuppressedNot calculated (too few children)
Regional centers · DDS

Regional center serving Santa Clara County

Regional centers coordinate state-funded services for people with developmental disabilities. They report figures for their whole catchment area, so these numbers are never split out by county.

SARC · serves Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz

San Andreas Regional Center

People served with an autism diagnosis on record8,473Through Nov 30, 2025California Department of Developmental Services
Open regional center data

What this measures: Counts people served by a regional center, not everyone with the condition. One person can have several diagnoses, so these counts cannot be added together. Figures cover the center's whole catchment area and are not split by county.

Licenses · CA Consumer Affairs

Licensed professionals with an address in Santa Clara County

The state licenses the people who can test a child outside school: psychologists, licensed educational psychologists and occupational therapists. These are counts of active licenses by the address each person registered with the state, not a count of evaluators taking new families.

Licensed psychologists873DCA licensee file, Oct 2026

About 22.4 per 10,000 children here; California: 20.7

California Department of Consumer Affairs
Licensed educational psychologists71DCA licensee file, Oct 2026

About 1.8 per 10,000 children here; California: 2.0

California Department of Consumer Affairs
Occupational therapists846DCA licensee file, Oct 2026

About 21.7 per 10,000 children here; California: 18.2

California Department of Consumer Affairs

What this measures: Counts licenses with status Current whose public address of record is in the area. The address of record can be a home or a business and is not necessarily where the person practices; it includes people who are retired from clinical work, work only with adults, or are not taking new clients. This is a count of licenses, not of evaluators available to families. Speech-language pathologists are not included because DCA's public file for that board has not been updated since 2019.

“Per 10,000 children” divides the license count by the Census estimate of children ages 0–17 living in the county. Many of these professionals work only with adults, and families often travel across county lines, so read it as a rough sense of scale.

Population · Census ACS

Children living in Santa Clara County

Census Bureau survey estimates give a sense of how many children live here. They come with margins of error and are not diagnosis counts.

Children ages 0–17390,076ACS 2020–2024 5-year estimate

Margin of error ±2,929

U.S. Census Bureau
Children as a share of all residents20.5%ACS 2020–2024 5-year estimateU.S. Census Bureau
Children by ageACS 5-year estimates, boys and girls combined
  • Ages 0–498,758
  • Ages 5–9104,138
  • Ages 10–14114,835
  • Ages 15–1772,345
Reading the numbers

None of these is an autism rate for Santa Clara County.

Schools

Count students whose IEP lists autism as the primary category. Students served under another category, or without an IEP, are not included.

Regional centers

Count people receiving services across a multi-county area. Not every autistic person is served by a regional center.

CDC estimates

The figures designed to estimate how common autism is come from CDC surveillance of specific monitored communities. They are not rates for any single county.

Compare California autism statistics
Find an evaluation

Evaluation guides near Santa Clara County

Data can describe a community. It cannot tell you whether your child needs an evaluation. Our guides explain the options.

South Bay

San Jose

Compare child evaluation options across San Jose and the South Bay, including clinicians serving multilingual and culturally diverse families.

Open the city guide Peninsula

Palo Alto

Explore pediatric assessment options around Palo Alto, Stanford, and the mid-Peninsula.

Open the city guide Evaluation guide

Autism evaluation

What an autism evaluation looks at, who can perform one, and what families can expect.

Read the guide Bay Area

Bay Area evaluation guide

Browse evaluation types and city guides across the region.

Explore the Bay Area
Sources

Where these numbers come from

Figures are copied from public files without adjustment. Suppressed cells stay blank. Each source's own definitions apply.

Read the methodology
  1. Public schools · CDECensus Day EnrollmentCalifornia Department of Education, Census Day Enrollment downloadable files
    Editions used
    2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26
    Retrieved
    Oct 16, 2026
    License
    Public data; CDE conditions of use
    Pipeline run
    cde-enroll-20261016180006-882e, cde-enroll-20261016180012-3b68 +1
  2. Public schools · CDESpecial Education Enrollment by Program SettingCalifornia Department of Education, DataQuest Special Education Enrollment by Program Setting downloadable files
    Editions used
    2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26
    Retrieved
    Oct 17, 2026
    License
    Public data; CDE conditions of use
    Pipeline run
    cde-sped-20261017224215-ef97, cde-sped-20261017224216-97df +6
  3. Population · Census ACSAmerican Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B01001 (Sex by Age)U.S. Census Bureau, 2020–2024 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Table B01001
    Editions used
    acs5-2024
    Retrieved
    Oct 16, 2026
    License
    Public domain (U.S. Government work)
    Pipeline run
    census-acs-20261016183714-a710
  4. Licenses · CA Consumer AffairsDCA public licensee lists (Psychology, Behavioral Sciences, Occupational Therapy)California Department of Consumer Affairs, public licensee lists
    Editions used
    behavioral-sciences-2026-10, occupational-therapy-2026-10, psychology-2026-10
    Retrieved
    Oct 17, 2026
    License
    Public records (California Public Records Act); DCA public information
    Pipeline run
    dca-licensees-20261017225803-9cf0, dca-licensees-20261017225748-f9c3 +1
  5. Regional centers · DDSDDS Consumers by Diagnosis, Early Start Consumers, and Regional CenterCalifornia Department of Developmental Services, via the California Open Data Portal (CC BY)
    Editions used
    ckan-2026-10-08
    Retrieved
    Oct 16, 2026
    License
    Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
    Pipeline run
    dds-diagnosis-20261016180057-88f1