Project Activities
Research question
- What was the percentage of children identified for early intervention and special education services under IDEA? What was the variation in the percentage identified over time and by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and disability categories?
- What was the variation across states and over time in the percentage of children identified for early intervention or special education services under IDEA?
- What percentage of children identified for early intervention and special education services lost eligibility (were declassified)?
- How did the developmental and academic outcomes for children who were declassified compare with those for children with disabilities who continued receiving services under IDEA?
- How did developmental and academic outcomes for children with disabilities identified for services under IDEA compare with those for children not identified for services under IDEA?
- How did developmental and academic outcomes for children with disabilities vary by disability categories within age groups and over time?
Structured Abstract
Design
This study included the synthesis of existing evidence and new analyses of extant data sources to address the study's research questions. Among the extant data sources used for the study were the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), data from State academic assessments of children with disabilities, Section 618 data submitted by States to the U.S. Department of Education to track IDEA 2004 implementation, Census Bureau population estimates, and data gathered from four national longitudinal studies of children with disabilities (National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study (NEILS), Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (PEELS), Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS), and National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS-2)).
Key findings
- For all three age groups, there was an increase from 1997 to 2005 in the percentages of children identified for services under IDEA.
- Patterns in the developmental and academic outcomes for children identified for services under IDEA varied across age groups. Based on NEILS parent and teacher reports of skills, former early intervention participants with IEPs continuing to receive special education service showed lower levels of performance across the five developmental domains than their same age peers in kindergarten. From the PEELS, preschool-age children identified for services under IDEA did not differ from the general population of same-age children on letter and word identification skills but had significantly lower applied mathematics skills, and teacher ratings of social skills. Among school-age children, the average NAEP test scores in fourth-grade reading and fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics increased from 2003 to 2007 for children identified and not identified for services under IDEA although school-age children and youth identified for IDEA services had significantly lower scores than their peers not identified for IDEA services in the 2003, 2005, and 2007 administrations of the NAEP.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
A report, titled Patterns in the Identification of and Outcomes for Children and Youth With Disabilities, was released in January 2010.
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
