About Us
Welcome to the website for the State of the States in Developmental Disabilities Project, administered by the University of Colorado, and funded in part by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities.
Established in 1982 to investigate the determinants of public spending for intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD) services in the United States, the project maintains a 33-year longitudinal record of revenue, spending, and programmatic trends in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States as a whole. Analysis of the rich detail of the data base reveals the impact over time of federal and state fiscal policy, and illustrates important service delivery trends in the states in community living, public and private residential institutions, family support, supported employment, supported living, Medicaid Waivers, demographics, and related areas.
These financial and programmatic trends are presented in The State of the States in Developmental Disabilities: 2011, by David Braddock, Richard Hemp, Mary C. Rizzolo, Laura Haffer, Emily Shea Tanis and Jiang Wu. The book is available for purchase from the AAIDD bookstore or by calling 301-604-1340. Self-advocates, families, state I/DD agencies, DD Councils, Protection and Advocacy Organizations, and State Arc Chapters should e-mail us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for information about obtaining the 2011 book.
Longitudinal data for fiscal years 1977-2009 are available on the State Profiles page.
Customized, state-by-state comparative data for 2009 are available on the Create a Chart page.
The State of the States project has produced over 190 articles contributing to the field's understanding of the evolving character of developmental disabilities service delivery systems in the United States, including: 9 books, 32 book chapters, 53 journal articles, 74 monographs and technical reports, 9 congressional and judicial testimonies, and 14 newsletters and brief reports. A list of selected publications is available on this web site. The project's research findings have also been disseminated through an extensive program of more that 475 presentations delivered in 45 states and seven foreign countries.