Abstract Objective. Depression is a significant issue for young people with physical disabilities. Efficient and reliable questionnaires are needed to evaluate and monitor the efficacy of depression treatments in this population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the 10-item version of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI-S) in a sample of young people with physical disabilities. Methods A convenience sample of young people with physical disabilities ( N = 97) was recruited and interviewed. Reliability was evaluated using the Cronbach's α and examining the item-total correlations. Validity was evaluated by computing Pearson correlations between scores on the CDI-S and measures of pain and psychological functioning (anxiety and depression). Results The CDS-I items loaded on a single factor. The internal consistency of the scale was good (Cronbach's α = 0.84) and the CDI-S showed moderate significant correlations with pain intensity ( r = 0.29), pain interference ( r = 0.46) and psychological functioning ( r = − 0.57). Two of the items, however, did not perform well (i.e., item-total correlations < 0.3, and Cronbach's α improved when they were deleted). Conclusion The findings support the reliability and validity of the CDI-S scores for use in young people with physical disabilities. The measure's psychometric properties should be studied in larger samples. In addition, there is a new brief version of the CDI (CDI-S 2) that needs to be evaluated in order to determine which of the two scales is better for assessing depression in young people with physical disabilities.