Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Groundbreaking federal legislation in 1975 promised long-denied equal opportunity for students with disabilities (SWDs) in public schools. Nonetheless, advocates, parents, and SWDs themselves continue to argue that, despite some notable gains, progress to date has been unsatisfying, leaving this promise unfulfilled. Others have argued that special education reforms to date have spurred increased spending, sorely burdening schools districts. In this study, we assess progress over the last decade in the nation’s largest school district, New York City (NYC). In particular, we examine progress toward the twin legislative goals of integrating SWDs and general education students (GENs) and improving SWD performance by answering two key questions. First, have SWDs moved to more integrated schools and services over time? Second, have disparities between SWD and GEN outcomes declined? We also analyze spending on special education services to gain insight into whether, and how, spending has changed over time.

We analyze data from the NYC Department of Education, including high school graduation outcomes, per-pupil expenditure, and longitudinal administrative records on all public school students in NYC from 2006-2015. These individual-level data include demographics, attendance, and scores on standardized math and English exams. Importantly, the data identify whether a student receives special education services and the designated disability classification and primary assigned service setting. Our sample contains roughly 2.8 million students, with over 500,000 unique SWDs. Our empirical strategy entails a detailed longitudinal analysis of trends in the integration of SWDs and GENs over-time, in spending, and in the SWD-GEN gap in test scores, high school graduation, and attendance. We provide a more nuanced analysis of compelling trends in integration and schooling outcomes using a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. This technique identifies the relative contribution of changes in the composition of students and changes in the effects of student characteristics.

Results reveal that while SWDs have made progress on some key measures of integration and performance, there remains considerable room for improvement. There is, for example, less segregation of SWDs and GENs across elementary and middle schools, but segregation in high schools has increased. SWD graduation rates have roughly doubled since 2006, but remain considerably below that of GENs. Improving outcomes for SWDs is a difficult undertaking and there is little to help us set benchmarks for how quickly progress should or can be made. Our analysis contributes to the limited supply of assessments of system-wide changes in special education, which are essential to evaluating policy efforts and revealing if helpful practices are adding up to progress for all SWDS or only selected groups. This study also comes at an appropriate time given the recent ruling handed down by the Supreme Court that schools cannot settle for minimal educational progress for students with disabilities. While we focus on one large district, many districts across the country face challenges in educating SWDs. Insights derived from our analysis will be useful to a broad range of districts and will aid the policy community evaluate changes in the future.

 This research is funded by the Spencer Foundation.