Objective: To examine mental health status of student cadres. Methods: 1289 cadre students and 5699 non-cadre students from 20 secondary special schools were tested by SCL-90. Results: The majority of mental health problems of cadre students included paranoia, hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, psychiatric, compulsion and somatization, as indicated by their elevated scores on these sub-scales (p<0.05). Conclusion: In secondary special schools, the mental health status of cadres was poorer than that of non-cadres. Female-cadres also compared less favourably than the male-cadres.