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In this article, Todd Grindal, Laura Schifter, Gabriel Schwartz, and Thomas Hehir examine race/ethnicity differences in students' special education identification and subsequent placement in segregated educational settings. Using individual-level data on the full population of K-12 public school students in three states, the authors find that racial and ethnic disparities in identification persist within income categories and are stronger for those disabilities that are typically identified in a school setting, such as learning disabilities or emotional disabilities, than those more often identified by a health-care provider, such as blindness or deafness. Also, Black and Hispanic students with disabilities were more likely to be placed in a substantially separate setting, compared to white students, regardless of income status. These results suggest that low-income status is insufficient to explain observed inequalities in the rate at which students of color are identified for special education and placed in substantially separate settings. A better understanding of the ways income status and race contribute to students' interactions with the special education system are critical for building a more equitable and just K-12 education system.

This study examined when students with disabilities graduated high school and how graduation patterns differed for students based on selected demographic and educational factors. Utilizing statewide data on students with disabilities from Massachusetts from 2005 through 2012, the author conducted discrete-time survival analysis to estimate the conditional probability of high school graduation in a given year after high school entry by disability category and placement in the general education setting. Results suggest that, across all disability categories, the peak conditional probability for graduation occurs 4 years after high school entry. In addition, students with disabilities who are fully included have higher graduation probability profiles than students with disabilities who are educated in substantially-separate settings.

This study explores the high school graduation experiences of students with disabilities, using data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2, 2010), and asking: (a) After entering high school, on average, how long does it take for students with disabilities to graduate? (b) Is time to graduation different for students with different disabilities? Eight years after entering high school, 72.4% of students with disabilities had graduated—with the maximum conditional probability of graduation occurring 5 years after entering high school. In addition, students' type of disability affected both their conditional probability of graduation in each year and the temporal profile of those probabilities. Limitations of the study, suggestions for future research, and policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]