Results Associated With Dropping Out of School

Whether youth with disabilities complete high school is associated with a variety of differences in experiences in their early postschool years.

• Dropouts are significantly less likely to be engaged in school, work, or preparation for work shortly after high school than are school completers; 69 percent vs. of dropouts have been engaged in these activities, compared with 86 percent of school completers.
• The form of postschool engagement undertaken by dropouts is unlikely to include postsecondary education. Controlling for other differences between dropouts and completers, including their functional cognitive abilities and previous academic achievement, dropouts with disabilities are 18 percentage points less likely to have enrolled in a 2- or 4-year college shortly after high school than are school completers. Eight percent of dropouts have attended vocational, business, or technical schools, and 1 percent have attended a 2-year college at some time since leaving high school, compared with 5 percent and 27 percent, respectively, among high school completers with disabilities.
• The rate of holding a paid job since high school among both dropouts and school completers is about 85 percent. However, dropouts with disabilities tend to work more hours per week (an average of 34 vs. 27 for school completers).
• Dropouts are more likely to support independent households and children than are school completers. More than one-fourth of dropouts with disabilities (27 percent) are living independently with a spouse or partner, compared with 7 percent of school completers; 19 percent are parenting, rates of independent living and parenting that are more than four times those of youth with disabilities who completed high school (3 percent).
• Dropouts are less likely than school completers to have a driver's license (51 percent vs. 73 percent) or a checking account (16 percent vs. 39 percent) and to be registered to vote (48 percent vs. 69 percent).
• More than one-third of dropouts with disabilities have spent a night in jail, three times the rate of youth with disabilities who finished high school. Controlling for other differences between them, dropouts are 10 percentage points more likely to have been arrested than youth with disabilities who finished high school.