The Chinese government has all along paid great attention to special education. With the initiation of the reform and opening policies in 1978, China's special education entered a new development period. The state has issued a series of laws and regulations which make explicit stipulations on safeguarding the rights to education of the disabled, formulated a series of both general and specific policies for reforming and developing the sphere of special education, while earmarking special funds for this purpose. According to statistics, China has 1,426 special education schools for blind, deaf and mentally retarded children and teenagers, and some 5,400 special education classes attached to ordinary middle schools, with a total of 320,000 students. In addition, a large number of disabled children and teenagers study in ordinary schools. Currently, more than 1,700 rehabilitation institutions for deaf infants are operating in China, and over 70,000 children have been or are being trained there. Furthermore, there are more than 1,000 vocational training institutions for the disabled in China.