The prevalence of students with visual impairments (VI) varies across the United States, yet no analysis exists on how individual state factors may correlate with the number of students receiving services. This study presents the results of an analysis of variations in eligibility criteria for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) category “visual impairments including blindness,” and a series of statistical models exploring correlations between prevalence rates for students with VI and state-level variables during the 2016–2017 and 2017–2018 school years. Multiple regression analyses indicated that requiring specific assessments as part of the eligibility process may strongly correlate to states’ number of students with visual impairments reported in Child Count and explain the degree of difference between Child Count and total population reports. Child Count prevalence rates were higher in states that housed a preparation program for teachers of students with visual impairments. Implications for policy makers, administrators, and practitioners were discussed.

视力障碍 (VI) 学生的患病率在美国各地各不相同，但没有关于个别州因素如何与接受服务的学生人数相关的分析。本研究展示了对《残疾人教育法》(IDEA) 类别“包括失明在内的视力障碍”的资格标准变化的分析结果，以及一系列探索 VI 学生患病率与州级之间相关性的统计模型2016-2017 学年和 2017-2018 学年的变量。多元回归分析表明，要求将特定评估作为资格过程的一部分可能与各州在儿童计数中报告的视力障碍学生人数密切相关，并解释儿童计数与总人口报告之间的差异程度。在为视力障碍学生的教师提供准备计划的州中，儿童计数的流行率较高。讨论了对政策制定者、管理者和从业者的影响。