The National Child Count of Children and Youth who are Deaf-Blind is the first and longest running registry and knowledge base of children who are deaf-blind in the world. It represents a 25 year collaborative effort between NCDB, its predecessors and each state deaf-blind project throughout the country, as well as those projects funded in the Pacific Trust territories--the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. It has been collaboratively designed and implemented as the common vehicle to meet federal grant requirements for both the state/multi-state and national technical assistance projects and serves as a common data collection and reporting mechanism for use across the country. Consistent with the priorities under which NCDB, its predecessors, and the state/multi-state projects are funded, this national child count is used to identify national and state technical assistance needs for children and youth who are deaf-blind, their families and the service providers and systems which serve them (Killoran, 2007). The child count is conducted on December 1st of each year to supplement OSEP's federal Part C and Part B Child Counts, which include children as deaf-blind only when deaf-blindness is their single disability. Some of the emerging trends identified in the 2009 Deaf-Blind Child Count include: (1) The overall numbers of children identified as deaf-blind has decreased over the past several years as projects continue to "clean" their databases. This trend is consistent with the time period of 1996-1998 when similar efforts were undertaken; (2) The prevalence of CHARGE association has increased significantly over the past five years. The prevalence of Usher Syndrome has decreased over the past five years; (3) The percentage of children/youth identified as needing further vision testing has decreased from 15.6% to 7.3%; and (4) The percentage of children/youth identified as needing further hearing testing has decreased from 20.4% to 8.9%. [For the 2008 Deaf-Blind Child Count, see ED545221.]