Services and Supports Received From School

Students with disabilities receive a variety of services and supports to help them learn (Levine, Marder, and Wagner 2004), and a comparison of services and supports provided to students in 2003 with those provided in the mid-1980s shows significant increases in the likelihood of students with disabilities receiving several kinds of related services (Wagner, Newman, and Cameto 2004). When youth were asked to indicate the degree to which they are (if still in school) or were (if no longer in school) "getting the support and services from the school that you need/needed to do well," almost half of youth with disabilities (47 percent) report agreeing "a lot," and more than one-third (37 percent) report agreeing "a little"; 10 percent and 6 percent reported disagreeing "a little" and "a lot," respectively. Youth who perceive they are getting the services and support they need at school are no more or less likely than those who do not to indicate that school is hard for them.

Figure 12: Youth with disabilities' reported feelings of being part of their school