Patterns in the Identification of and Outcomes for Children and Youth with Disabilities
Contract Information
Current Status:
This study has been completed.
Duration:
August 2007 – January 2010
Cost:
$2,039,560
Contract Number:
ED-04-CO-0040/0007
Contractor(s):
SRI International
Contact:
Reports
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004) is the most recent authorization of a law passed in 1975 to promote a free appropriate public education for children with disabilities. Funded at $12.6 billion in Fiscal Year 2009 (plus an additional $12.2 billion through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act), IDEA supports early intervention services for infants and toddlers, special education services for children ages 3 through 21, and early intervening services for students not in special education but in need of academic or behavioral support.
IDEA 2004 emphasizes the early and appropriate identification of children with disabilities and the improvement of outcomes (including performance on state academic assessments) for children receiving IDEA services. This study was part of the National Assessment of IDEA 2004, which was conducted under Section 664 of IDEA 2004 to assess the implementation and effectiveness of key programs and services supported under the law. This study supported the analysis of extant data as a cost-effective means of examining patterns of identification of and outcomes for children with disabilities.
- 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?
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)).
A report, titled Patterns in the Identification of and Outcomes for Children and Youth With Disabilities, was released in January 2010.
- 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.