Where Were the Autistic Kids and Adults in the 1970s?

If you listen to anti-vaccine influencers, they would have you believe that there were no autistic kids or adults in the 1970s.

Until the mid to late 1970s, autistic kids weren't allowed in public schools and it was even later that they were more commonly taught in general education classes. — Until the mid to late 1970s, autistic kids weren’t allowed in public schools and it was even later that they were more commonly taught in general education classes.

It is the cornerstone of their ‘evidence’ that vaccines are associated with autism.

Where Were the Autistic Kids and Adults in the 1970s?

Of course, there is a very good reason why we didn’t see many autistic kids in school back in those days.

Not surprisingly, it has nothing to do with their implication that there were no autistic kids!

It’s true, they weren’t in public schools.

A parent in Michigan describes how his 10-year-old autistic son had never been allowed to go public school in 1973.

Remember, it wasn’t until state and federal laws were passed, specifically the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975, that these children started going to public school.

In 1975, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal printed an article about a class for autistic kids at Overton Elementary School. At the time, it was one of only two such classes in the whole state of Texas!

And even then, it took passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), in 1990, which included autism as a separate disability, to make it a little easier to get services for autistic children.

“In 1970, only one in five students with disabilities was educated in American schools. In 1993, fewer than 7% of school-aged children with developmental disabilities were educated in general education classrooms. The struggle had shifted over the years from getting children with disabilities into public schools to supporting them to learn in the classrooms of neighborhood schools.”
The 1990s: More, But Slow, Progress.

Not easy enough though…

In 1997, IDEA was amended, with emphasis on access to the general curriculum. And giving states the authority to expand the “developmental delay” definition to also include students up to age nine.

Autistic children in Tulsa, Oklahoma got their first class in a public school in 1973. Interestingly, these parents describe their infants growing normally and then regressing at a time in the 1960s when they would not have gotten any vaccines... — Autistic children in Tulsa, Oklahoma got their first class in a public school in 1973. Interestingly, these parents describe their infants growing normally and then regressing at a time in the 1960s when they would not have gotten any vaccines…

So where were all of these autistic kids – and adults, before they got to go to public school?

Most were in state institutions.

Specifically, they were in the kind of state institutions that RFK Jr said that they wouldn’t be found in.

“In 1965, my father toured Willowbrook on Staten Island and launched the national campaign to shut down these medieval warehouses for human beings. I worked for 200 hours in one of those nightmare facilities—Wassaic Home for the Retarded in Dutchess County, New York in 1968 and 1969. I worked around people suffering every kind of intellectual disability, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, schizophrenia and hydrocephaly, among many others. I never saw a case of autism. In fact, like most Americans, I knew nothing about the disease until I saw the extremely mild form depicted by Dustin Hoffman in the film Rainman in 1988.”
RFK Jr – Is the Autism Epidemic Real?

Remember, nearly all parents of an autistic child were told to put them in an institution back then.

“At the time, treatment for autism was very limited. Most of these children were placed in institutions, far from the public eye, to live out their lives.”
Historical Perspective

And even more of the children and adults in these institutions likely had autism but were diagnosed instead with mental retardation, intellectual disability, or childhood schizophrenia, or another disorder.

At least they were until those kinds of institutions all closed…

“The closure of institutions for ‘mental defectives’ and the growth of parental advocacy groups help to explain the increase in cases of autism since the 1960s… ‘Autism’ appropriated new meanings and this meant that it came to be more easily diagnosed in children who previously would not have been considered to display that particular thought abnormality.”
How autism became autism

Then, thanks to the push from parental advocacy groups, these children were finally able to get support in public schools.

And as more autistic kids got support in public schools, it helped raise awareness and got even more kids diagnosed with autism, especially as the diagnostic criteria in DSM was broadened.

“If conformity was king in the classroom of the mid-20^th century, then students on the spectrum faced particular challenges. Their autism unrecognized, they were sometimes regarded as willfully nonconformist, disruptive, or emotionally unstable. Some managed to earn stellar grades, while others muddled along academically, sometimes in special education classes, sometimes not. “…These are the lost generation: those who today would receive their diagnosis by 6 or 8 years old, if they were a 21st century child,” according to British researchers.”
A Lost Generation: Growing Up With Autism Before The “Epidemic”

Still, it is important to understand that even more children and adults at that time had undiagnosed autism…

This is the “lost generation” of children and adults with autism that are hopefully getting diagnosed now, as an older adult, as awareness has so greatly increased.

“Fast forward to the year 2006, when the American academy of pediatrics would finally starting to recommend screening all children for autism in pediatric visits at 18 and 24 months. Which is great, however, Autistics born after 2005 (the year I graduated high school) would miss out on the assessments.

I’m going to be 36 next week, and was already a legal adult when they started these childhood screenings, which are great for future generations, but did NOTHING for Autistics like me and the many others who were missed or ignored (completely) by the American medical system.”
The Missing Generations of Autistic People

This is the autism story that anti-vaccine influencers don’t want you to know, because it doesn’t mesh with their world view that vaccines triggered an autism epidemic in 1989.

But now, the next time they mention Rain Man or that they didn’t go to school with any autistic kids, you will be ready to refute their misinformation! And you will be able to explain how we are mostly seeing an increase in kids getting diagnosed with autism, not in more kids having autism.

More on the Lost Generation of Autistic Children and Adults

Last Updated on February 26, 2026

Where Were the Autistic Kids and Adults in the 1970s?

Where Were the Autistic Kids and Adults in the 1970s?

More on the Lost Generation of Autistic Children and Adults

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Where Were the Autistic Kids and Adults in the 1970s?

More on the Lost Generation of Autistic Children and Adults

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