School District by School District, Bay Area Autism Diagnoses Rise

July 9, 2008

Contact: Andy Krackov, senior director of public information, at (650) 736-0677 or andy.krackov@lpfch.org, if you have any questions.

Whether the numbers reflect improved detection, a change in how symptoms are diagnosed, or an actual increase in incidence, the number of Bay Area public school students diagnosed with autism has been rising in every county and nearly every school district in the Bay Area for which data are available, according to a fact sheet released today by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health.

Compiled from the foundation's kidsdata.org website, the data show a Bay Area-wide increase of 156 percent in the number of students enrolled with autism, from 2,195 students in 2001 to 5,633 in 2007. In California, the growth in public school students diagnosed with autism increased by 183 percent from 2001 to 2007.

Between 2005 and 2007, rates of students with autism rose in more than 90 percent of Bay Area school districts for which data are available. In Marin County, the rate of students diagnosed with autism is 5.2 per 1,000 students, the lowest in the Bay Area. The highest rates are in San Mateo (7.5 per 1,000 students) and Santa Clara counties (7.6 per 1,000 students).

Kidsdata is a wide-ranging, online clearinghouse of information about the health and well being of Bay Area children, provided by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health. The complete fact sheet, Autism Diagnoses on the Rise, can be found online at www.kidsdata.org/autismbrief.