The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) State and Local Implementation Study 2019
Contract Information
Current Status:
Underway
Duration:
Phase I (Design, Sampling, Survey Collection, and Initial Reporting): September 2017 – June 2024
Phase II (Additional Analysis and Reporting): September 2023 – April 2025
Cost:
Phase I: $4,776,993; Phase II: $487,499
Contract Number:
ED-IES-17-C-0069 (Phase I); 91990023D0006 (Phase II)
Contractor(s):
Phase I:
Mathematica Policy Research
National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools
Walsh Taylor Inc.
Phase II:
American Institutes for Research
Contact:
Federal policy has long played a key role in educating the more than one in every ten US children who are identified with a disability. But the context for those policies has been shifting. Recent court decisions, regulations, and guidance, students' increasing language diversity, and environmental and health issues like the opioid crisis are expected to influence both the extent of supports needed and the ways practitioners and officials work to meet those needs through early intervention and special education. This study collected information that can provide a national picture of IDEA implementation 15 years after the law was last updated. Reports will describe how states and districts have adapted their policies and practices to the changing landscape in selected key policy areas, comparing data from 2019 to data from a similar study conducted in 2009. This new information will lay the groundwork for an upcoming reauthorization of IDEA.
Phase I:
- How are state and district practices aligned with IDEA's goals of appropriately identifying children with disabilities?
- To what extent do schools provide professional development and other resources to general educators to support the students with disabilities in their classrooms?
- To what extent do districts and schools provide supports intended to help students with disabilities make successful transitions from high school?
Phase II:
- To what extent are states, districts, and schools implementing policies and practices to ensure that students with disabilities have qualified special education teachers and support staff as intended by IDEA?
This implementation study is descriptive, and its results will be provided in a series of topical reports. Data collection includes surveys of state administrators from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and territories receiving IDEA funding, as well as surveys of a nationally representative sample of 688 school districts and 2,750 schools about the 2019–20 school year.
A supplemental volume, titled IDEA State and Local Implementation Study 2019: Compendium of Survey Results, was released in September 2023.
A restricted-use file containing de-identified data is available for the purposes of replicating study findings and conducting secondary analyses.
The first report for the study is expected in 2024 and will be announced on https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/.
Key findings will be available after the study report is published.