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SPECIAL ED DROPOUTS, LOST STUDENTS OUTNUMBER GRADUATES

July 11, 2000

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special Education News presents this monthly feature to give readers a glimpse of interesting developments in the special education field. Special Education News welcomes submissions for future monthly data reports.

On average, 17 percent of high school special ed students dropped out from 1996 to 1998, according to the U.S. Department of Education's 21st Annual Report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. At least twice that number either graduated with a high school diploma or returned to general ed classes in each of those years, but the overall graduation rate of special ed students lagged well behind that of general ed students. While an average of 27 percent of students with disabilities graduated with a high school diplomas in those years, about 75 percent of general ed students got diplomas.

More students with disabilities left special ed services prematurely in each year from 1996 to 1998 than graduated with a high school diploma.

Students graduated with diploma: 27%

Students returned to regular ed programs: 13.7%

Students dropped out: 17.3%

Students who left special ed, untracked: 12.7%

The fact that almost one third of high school students not getting special ed services during that period either dropped out or were unaccounted for shows the special ed system still has significant progress to make, the National Council on Disability argues. "We, as a nation, do not really know what happens to those 150,000 or so former students. It is not clear how many go on to jobs. Or how many go on to college. Or how many wind up on welfare rolls," the NCD says. "Each year now for the next 10 years we may witness a steady increase in the overall numbers of youth and young adults who disappear from our 'radar screen' because they have dropped out and/or exited for unknown reasons."

In 1998, Texas boasted the highest graduation rate for students with disabilities, reporting 81 percent of students receiving special ed services earned diplomas. Texas Governor George W. Bush, the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president of the United States, has noted this during his campaign against Democratic leader and current Vice President Al Gore. Mississippi has the dubious distinction of occupying the bottom of the scale, with just 7 percent of its special needs students graduating from high school in 1998. In fact. the southeastern United States posted the lowest regional graduation rate for students with special needs, with Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas reporting graduation rates of 7 to 20 percent.

Source: "Transition and Post-School Outcomes for Youth with Disabilities," report prepared by the NCD for the National Transition Summit on Young People with Disabilities.