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• Kindergarteners with disabilities versus those without are more chronically absent. • Chronic absence disparities are driven by socioecological factors. • Approaches to learning and internalizing behaviors drives much of the disparity. • Addressing systemic inequities that underlie internalizing behaviors could help reduce the gap. The disparity in absenteeism between kindergarteners with and without disabilities is a persistent phenomenon across schools in the United States and reflects ongoing systemic inequities that disadvantage young children with disabilities. Yet, evidence of factors underlying this disparity remains less well understood, limiting the ability for schools to transform how they support students with disabilities in ways that could help narrow the disparity. In our study, we investigate how a set of factors, grounded in a socioecological framework of absenteeism, correlates with chronic absenteeism in kindergarteners with and without disabilities. Importantly, we examine the extent to which distributional differences in these factors between children with and without disabilities explain the attendance disparity. Our study draws upon a nationally representative sample of N = 13,860 kindergarteners (52 % male, 48 % female, M age = 5.5 years, n = 1240 with disabilities) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey Kindergarten Class of 2010–11. We analyze our data using multiple logistic regression to identify significant factors that correlate with chronic absenteeism and leverage the Kitagawa-Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method to describe how distributional differences in those factors contribute to absenteeism disparities. Results show that internalizing behaviors in students with disabilities and their parents' health are significantly associated with chronic absenteeism as well as help explain the disparity (12 % and 3 % of the disparity, respectively). Importantly, since differences in internalizing behaviors can be generated, in part, by school practices and policies that treat early elementary students with disabilities inequitably, our work suggests that reducing gaps in early absenteeism may require schools to reduce exposure to experiences that can lead to internalizing problem behaviors in young children with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many schools around the world involuntarily began remote learning in March of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought immediate changes and challenges to teaching and learning that are likely to influence student achievement into the foreseeable future. While large numbers of students face difficulties in learning to read under typical conditions, remote learning resulted in substantial deficits in reading outcomes. This study aimed to examine the relative impact of the pandemic on reading performance in United States (U.S.) for students with and without disabilities. and procedure: In this interpretive analysis, we compared the progress of a large sample of students (n = 219,500) by using the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data, in two grade levels (Grades 4 and 8), with and without disabilities, at two time points (2019 and 2022). Statistically significant decreases were identified on the reading outcomes of students in U.S. Students without disabilities experienced a significant decrease in their reading outcomes pre- and post-pandemic, compared to students with disabilities (SWDs). We discuss the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' reading performance and the implications for effective reading instructions in the future. • The reading performance of fourth and eighth grade students in US significantly decreased from 2019 to 2022. • The reading scores of students without disabilities (SWOD) decreased significantly, but those of students with disabilities (SWD) did not. • The difference in reading between SWD and SWOD was significant pre- and post-pandemic, with SWD underperforming SWOD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: About 18% of college students have disabilities. Social capital, resources we can tap from relationships, may be particularly valuable for students with disabilities. Yet, disabilities often limit the individual's ability to develop or use social capital. We studied how college students with developmental disabilities understand, develop, and use social capital.Methods and Procedures: We conducted in-depth semi-structured Zoom interviews with 10 women with developmental disabilities enrolled at a public university in the southeastern United States early in 2021. We examined the qualitative data with thematic analysis.Outcomes and Results: Participants averaged age 20; 70% reported attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; 90% reported multiple diagnoses. Most participants described COVID-19 pandemic-related isolation and stress, which magnified both the need for relationships and awareness of that need, prompting participants to become proactive in forming and maintaining relationships despite anxiety about them. Themes were: foundational relationships, reciprocity, expanding horizons, a need for new relationships, focus on the future and relationship barriers.Conclusions and Implications: Results highlight the importance of social relationships and the resources they provide to students with disabilities, particularly in stressful times. Colleges can help students by connecting them with others and providing strategies for building and maintaining social capital.What This Paper Adds: College students with developmental disabilities often face challenges developing and maintaining social capital, resources derived from relationships with other people. These resources are key to success in school and after graduation, as students continue into adulthood. We studied how students with developmental disabilities build social capital. The students described their relationships with others and the types of support they contributed to and received from those relationships. We also extended previous research by examining pandemic-related effects, interviewing participants nearly one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. We provide recommendations for further research and ways colleges and universities can encourage social capital development among all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Chrono-curricula influence learning styles of students with disabilities. • Hidden curriculum greatly determine the success of students with disabilities in school. • Conscious and unconscious biases are detrimental to students' wellbeing. • Environmental barriers aggravate personal challenges. • Fostering a positive attitude in educators is critical in availing official and hidden curricula. Although significantly influencing postsecondary school outcomes, high school education remains challenging to obtain for many disabled students. Then it is vital to know how chrono-curricula operates about disability. This qualitative study on the impact of school time on high school education examines the experiences of eight purposefully sampled US undergraduate disabled students. Their accounts reveal that conflicts between the school calendar and their disability caused a hidden curriculum of time that interfered with their quest to achieve postsecondary education outcomes. Therefore, addressing the hidden curriculum of time within the school time frame is essential in realizing the genuine inclusion of disabled students. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]