High School Completion by Youth with Disabilities (page 3)

Whether youth complete high school or leave without finishing can be associated with both economic and social disadvantages, with dropouts experiencing a higher likelihood of unemployment and arrest and lower life-time earnings than graduates (U.S. Department of Commerce 2004; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 1995). Data regularly collected by the U.S. Department of Education on high school completion and dropout rates for the general population show that school completion is less common among some demographic groups than others, including those from lower-income households and students who are Hispanic, for example (U.S. Department of Education 2005). Similar national data for students with disabilities are not routinely collected,1 so trends in school-leaving status and differential school completion rates for different demographic groups among youth with disabilities are unknown.

Data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2)2 are designed to provide a national picture of the rate at which secondary school students with disabilities complete high school and how they fare in their early postschool years. Further, comparisons of findings from NLTS2 and the original NLTS4 enables an investigation of changes in school completion rates from 1987 through 2003.

School Completion Status

Parents’ interview responses in 2003 indicate that 72 percent of out-of-school youth with disabilities complete high school by receiving either a regular diploma or a certificate of completion or similar document (figure 1). The rate of high school completion in that same year for youth with disabilities overall was 17 percentage points higher than the rate in 1987. Among the 28 percent who do not complete high school, the most common reasons reported are their dislike of their school experience (36 percent) and poor relationships with teachers and students (17 percent).

Disability Category Differences

School completion rates are quite high among youth with visual or hearing impairments (95 percent and 90 percent, respectively), as well as among those with orthopedic impairments (88 percent) or autism (86 percent). However, because these are low-incidence categories of disability (e.g., NLTS2 represents about 22,000 youth with hearing impairments, slightly fewer youth with orthopedic impairments, almost 15,000 youth with autism, and about 8,000 youth with visual impairments), their relatively high rates of school completion do not affect the average for all youth with disabilities to the extent that rates for higher-incidence categories do. For example, the school completion rate is 75 percent for the largest category, learning disability (NLTS2 represents more than 1,130,000 youth with learning disabilities). School completion rates for youth in four other categories are between 72 percent and 79 percent. Lower rates are apparent for youth with multiple disabilities or deaf-blindness and youth with emotional disturbances, among whom 65 percent and 56 percent are high school completers, respectively.

Significant increases in school completion are noted for three of the four disability categories whose members had the lowest school completion rates in 1987: learning disability (18 percentage points), mental retardation (21 percentage points), and emotional disturbance (16 percentage points).

Demographic Differences

Differences in the rate at which out-of-school youth with disabilities complete high school are apparent for groups who differ in selected demographic characteristics.

Age. Not surprisingly, the lowest high school completion rate (48 percent) occurs among youth with disabilities who were ages 15 through 17 and not in school, ages at which most youth typically still would be in high school. However, this youngest group experienced the largest increase over time in the likelihood of finishing school (37 percentage points).

The high school completion rate is significantly higher among 18-year-olds than 15- through 17-year-olds-71 percent-a 25-percentage-point increase since 1987. The school completion rate is highest (80 percent) among out-of-school 19-year-olds with disabilities, although this is not a significantly higher rate than in 1987.

Household income. The completion rate is significantly higher among youth with disabilities from wealthier households (i.e., with incomes of more than $50,000) than among low-income youth (82 percent vs. 64 percent), an income-related difference that also is apparent in the general population (Kaufman, Alt, and Chapman 2001). However, both the lowest and middle income groups show significant increases over time in their school completion rates (19 and 26 percentage points, respectively), an increase not shared by the highest income group.

Race/ethnicity. Although Hispanic youth with disabilities appear to have a lower rate of school completion than White or African-American peers (60 percent vs. 74 percent and 3 77 percent), this difference is not statistically significant. Similarly, although all three racial/ethnic groups demonstrate similar increases over time in their school completion rates, only the increases for White and African-American youth with disabilities reach statistical significance (18 and 22 percentage points, respectively).

Gender. No differences are noted in the school completion rates of boys and girls with disabilities. However, boys show a statistically significant increase over time that is not evident for girls (20 vs. 10 percentage points for boys and girls, respectively).

References

Kaufman, D., Alt, M.N., and Chapman, D. (2001). Dropout Rates in the United States: 2000. Education Statistics Quarterly, 3. Retrieved September 11, 2004, from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/ quarterly/vol_3/3_4/q3-3.asp

Knoblauch, B., and Sorenson, B. (1998). IDEA Definition of Disabilities. ERIC Digest #560. Retrieved October 10, 2005, from http://ericec.org/digests/e560.html

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (1995). Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report. Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice.

Osgood, W., Foster, M., Flanagan, C., and Ruth, G. (2005). Why Focus on the Transition to Adulthood for Vulnerable Populations? In W. Osgood, M. Foster, C. Flanagan, and G. Ruth (Eds.), On Your Own Without a Net: The Transition to Adulthood for Vulnerable Populations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Tyler, J.H. (2003). Economic Benefits of the GED: Lessons Learned From Recent Research. Review of Educational Research, 73: 369-403.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. (2004). Current Population Survey (CPS), October Supplement, 1972-2002, Tables 215 and 608. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

U.S. Department of Education. (2002, 2003). "To Assure the Free Appropriate Public Education of All Handicapped Children." Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Annual Reports to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2005). The Condition of Education 2005 (NCES 2005-094).Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Wagner, M., Newman, L., Cameto, R., and Levine, P. (2005). Changes Over Time in the Early Postschool Outcomes of Youth With Disabilities. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

Wagner, M., Newman, L., Cameto, R., Garza, N., and Levine, P. (2005). After High School: A First Look at the Postschool Experiences of Youth With Disabilities. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

NLTS2 has been funded with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Special Education Research, under contract number ED-01-CO-0003.

The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. government.