Graduation Gap of Special Education

WHO GETS TO GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL

According to the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS), 92% of parents expected their child to graduate from high school with a regular diploma and
75% expected their child go on to post-secondary education after high school.

GRADUATION RATE OF STUDENTS WHO HAVE DISABILITIES

 1990 - 57% - national average
2016 – 64% - national average

• In 20 states graduation rates are lower than 60%
• In 3 states graduation rate is 50% lower than non-disabled peers

(Arkansas 81.9 percent graduated, Nevada 29 percent graduated)

WHO GOES TO POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION

                        WITH DISABILITIES          WITHOUT DISABILITIES

2008                                 10.8%                                    90%

2012                                 11.1%                                    89%

2016                                                                                70%

NCES
There is currently no way to track retention and graduation rates of students with disabilities in the U.S., per the NCCSD research brief on databases

• 5.7 % of students with disabilities were enrolled at a four-year institution as compared to 28.3 percent of all students.
• 67% of students with hearing impairments and 69% of students with visual impairments had attended some college since high school.
• Only 20% of students with emotional disabilities had some post-secondary education
• 9.7 % of students with disabilities were enrolled at a community or 2 year college as compared to 12.2 % of non-disabled peers
• 5 % of students with disabilities were attending pos-tsecondary vocational, business, or technical schools
• 66% of post-secondary students with disabilities received no accommodations from their colleges that they could have
• 50% of post-secondary students with disabilities did not consider themselves to have a disability – This is a major issue!
• 7 % acknowledged having a disability and did not tell their colleges
• 77 % of students, while in high school, aspired to get a post-secondary education, but only 31% took some post-secondary classes
• Only 26.1 % of students with a disability with a bachelor's degree were employed as compared to 75.9% of college graduates with no disability.
• 16.4 % of students with a disability completed a bachelor’s degree vs. 34.6 % of students with no disability
• 20% of people with a disability had less than a high school diploma
• 94 % of high school students with learning disabilities get supports while only 17 % of learning-disabled college students get supports.
• Students with disabilities drop out of four-year colleges and ONLY 34 percent complete a four-year degree within eight years of finishing high school
• 45% of parents whose children were seeking college accommodations said it was difficult to find information about disability services in college.

o Less than half of colleges that require documentation of a disability accept an IEP or 504 plan as sufficient, stand-alone verification. Some colleges will not accept evaluations that are more than three years old. Others require diagnostic data that are normed for adults rather than K–12 students

o Colleges vary greatly in their disability determinations and are often far more restrictive than high schools in granting accommodations

• One study of undergraduates at a large state university found that the risk of not graduating within six years was 3.5 times higher for students who waited until after their first year in college to request accommodations.
  • Another study grouped students based on when they began receiving support and found that the mean GPA was highest for students who were early disclosers.
• 
  Among students with learning disabilities and ADHD, those who attended a learning support center had higher GPAs than those who did not use such services.
• An analysis of 2006–2011 data found that the GPAs of students with learning disabilities and ADHD who used support services such as study skills, coaching, writing and math lab, and academic advising increased with each hour of support services.

According to NLTS2, just 19% of young adults with learning disabilities reported that their employers were aware of their disability, and only 5% reported that they were receiving accommodations in the workplace. Fear of stigma is likely a contributing factor. But so is lack of awareness about job accommodations.

High School data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (released in March 2017)

• Less than half of students 17 or older (41%) with SLD reported playing “at least an equal part” in developing goals for their transition plan and/or IEP.
• 29% had not met with school staff to develop a transition plan.

 DEVELOP MORE ROBUST TRANSITION GOALS

• 1 in 4 had IEPs that did not specify a course of study to meet transition goals.
  • About half (55%) had IEPs that identified the need for post-secondary education accommodations.
• Slightly more than half of students whose high school transition plans specified the types of supports and accommodations they would need in post-secondary school accessed universally available supports (e.g., tutors, writing centers) at two- and four-year colleges, compared to only about one-third of students with similar characteristics whose transition plans did not include these specifics. Students whose transition plans specified post-secondary supports and accommodations were also significantly more likely to receive disability-specific supports at two- and four-year colleges