Type of school attended by children with Down's syndrome

Summary Information on school attendance for children with Down's syndrome born between 1979 and 1987 was obtained from 11 special needs registers. Data were obtained on 304 children including a total of 762 child‐years of education for 233 children between five and 11. Overall, for five‐ to 11‐year‐olds, 26 per cent of the child‐years were spent in mainstream schools, the proportion having increased steadily in cohorts of children entering school in more recent years, from 15 per cent in 1984/85 to 39 per cent in 1990. There was only a small tendency for mainstream attendance to decline with increasing age.