A Systematic Literature Review of Racial Disproportionality in Autism in the U.S.
Autism counts still miss Hispanic and Native American kids, and your state’s rules and language choices are part of the fix.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Kim et al. (2025) looked at every U.S. paper on race and autism counts from the past twenty years.
They lined up the studies to see which kids get missed and why.
What they found
Hispanic and Native American children are still found less often than White children.
The gap moves by state: some states catch more kids, some miss more.
Rules, money, and language in each state steer the numbers.
How this fits with other research
Agiovlasitis et al. (2025) used the same 2020 school data and added gender. They show the Latina girl gap is the biggest, so the review’s Hispanic trend is even sharper for girls.
Fannin et al. (2024) warn that when Black kids’ numbers look closer to White kids’, it does not mean they get equal help. The review keeps that warning: counts can rise while care stays poor.
Kim et al. (2024) found bilingual kids do better when teams speak their home language. The 2025 review folds that idea in, saying language barriers partly drive the Hispanic under-count.
Why it matters
Your referral list may already show the gap. Check if Hispanic and Native American families wait longer or decline. Ask what language the parent forms use, and who on your team can give an ADOS in Spanish. One small switch—offering native-language screening—can move the count closer to the real number of kids who need help.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add a Spanish-language social-communication parent screener to your intake packet and note if families complete it faster.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
In recent years, the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network has observed a shift in racial disparities in autism. To delineate the historical shift of racial disproportionality in US autism prevalence, our literature review examines three key topics: publication trends concerning racial disproportionality in autism, discernible national and state-level patterns, and underlying factors contributing to the disproportionality. Using the PRISMA framework, we synthesized 24 empirical studies on racial disproportionality in autism and its change over time. These studies explored national patterns and spatiotemporal variations to provide a comprehensive understanding of racial disparities in autism. Studies indicated similar national patterns for Black and Asian racial groups; both groups had had mixed results around the turn of the millennium. By 2007, the Asian group was overrepresented again. Hispanic and Native American groups have consistently been underrepresented. However, significant spatiotemporal variations were found, suggesting that these disparities might reflect inherent inequalities within the current identification and classification system. The patterns of racial disproportionality in autism seem to be influenced by numerous factors. These include varying state definitions of autism, disparities in resource distribution, differences in symptom recognition across cultures, service preferences, cultural mismatches between professionals and families, and prevailing biases and stigmas, as revealed by the reviewed studies. These findings prompt a closer look into the causes and implications of these disparities, offering the underlying issues within the current diagnostic system and highlighting the need for further research to ensure equal educational opportunities regardless of disabilities and race/ethnicity.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1002/pits.22671