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NLTS2 Data BriefReports from the National Longitudinal Transition StudyJune 2003 • Vol. 2, Issue 1
Who Are Secondary Students in Special Education Today?By Mary Wagner, Renée Cameto, and Anne-Marie Guzmán Although the disability of a student who receives special education can be a powerful influence on his or her experiences, other characteristics of youth also affect their lives in important ways. For example, gender has both obvious and subtle influences on the ways they develop. Racial/ethnic background can involve rich cultural traditions and patterns of relationships within families and communities that can generate important differences in values, perspectives, expectations, and practices. The households where youth grow up, the resources available in them, and the characteristics of the parents who head them can have implications for students’ economic security and emotional support. Understanding the complex set of characteristics that youth with disabilities bring to their experiences at school and in the community is a foundation for serving them well. The following brief on the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2)1 provides information on those characteristics.
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| Youth With Disabilities | General Population | |
|---|---|---|
| White | 62% | 63% |
| African American | 21% | 16% (Statistically significant difference: **p<.01) |
| Hispanic | 14% | 16% |
| Other | 3% | 5% |
Household Characteristics
Household income
Youth with disabilities were more likely to be poor than youth in general. More than one-third (37%) of youth with disabilities came from households with incomes of $25,000 or less, compared with 20% of the general population. Similar to the general population, students of color were more likely than white youth to come from low-income households. More than half of African American and Hispanic youth with disabilities came from households with incomes of $25,000 or less, compared with 25% of white youth.
Living arrangements
Almost one-third (31%) of youth with disabilities lived in single-parent households, similar to the general population. Single-parent households were much more common among low-income youth with disabilities (55%) than among their wealthier peers (9%). Youth with disabilities were more likely to be living in households without a parent than were youth in the general population (8% vs. 5%). More than one-third of adolescents with disabilities (36%) lived in households in which another child also had a disability.
Parents’ characteristics
Compared with the general population, youth with disabilities were twice as likely to have a head of household who had not graduated from high school (21% vs. 10%). Their heads of household also were much more likely to be unemployed (17% vs. 11%). Heads of household who were high school dropouts were more common among low-income households than among higher-income households (39% vs. 7%), as were heads of household who were unemployed (35% vs. 5%).3
Disability Category Differences in Household Characteristics
Youth with different disabilities had very different household environments (see table). For example, youth with mental retardation were much more likely than most others to have a cluster of household characteristics that could be risk factors for poor outcomes. More than half of youth with mental retardation (55%) came from low-income households, and 34% were living with a single parent. The heads of household of one-third of such youth were high school dropouts, and 28% were not working. Youth with emotional disturbances also were more likely than most others to experience several of these risk factors.
In contrast, these characteristics were least common for youth with autism or other health impairments. One-fourth came from low-income households or lived with one parent. Their heads of household also were among the least likely to be high school dropouts or unemployed.
NLTS2 data suggest that youth with disabilities differ in important ways from the general population. The differences between disability categories in many of the individual and household characteristics presented here are even more striking. Understanding these variations in the characteristics of youth with disabilities provides an important context for interpreting differences in their experiences and achievements in school and in early adulthood. As NLTS2 unfolds throughout this decade, analyses will highlight key aspects of those experiences and achievements and identify factors that contribute to more successful outcomes for youth with disabilities.
Percentage of youth from households with: |
Percentage of youth with a head of household who was: |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Low income (<=$25,000)
|
A single parent
|
Another child with a disability
|
A high school dropout
|
Unemployed
|
|
| Learning Disability |
34
|
31
|
35
|
20
|
14
|
| Speech/ Language Impairment |
29
|
25
|
34
|
20
|
15
|
| Mental Retardation |
55
|
34
|
39
|
32
|
28
|
| Emotional Disturbance |
44
|
38
|
39
|
20
|
24
|
| Hearing Impairment |
29
|
26
|
26
|
18
|
14
|
| Visual Impairment |
32
|
31
|
32
|
15
|
18
|
| Orthopedic Impairment |
31
|
27
|
26
|
15
|
16
|
| Other Health Impairment |
24
|
22
|
40
|
13
|
12
|
| Autism |
23
|
27
|
29
|
11
|
16
|
| Traumatic Brain Injury |
32
|
30
|
26
|
15
|
17
|
| Multiple Disabilities |
35
|
25
|
35
|
14
|
20
|
| Deaf-Blindness |
35
|
36
|
23
|
18
|
19
|
References
Hebbeler, K., Wagner, M., Spiker, D., Scarborough, A., Simeonsson, R., & Collier, M. (2001). A first look at the characteristics of children and families entering early intervention services. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.
Wagner, M., Marder, C., Blackorby, J., & Cardoso, D. (2002). The children we serve: The demographic characteristics of elementary and middle school students with disabilities and their households. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.
NLTS2 Welcomes Feedback!
Contact us —
NLTS2, 333 Ravenswood Ave., BS-136, Menlo Park, CA 94025
Phone: 866.269.7274; E-mail: nlts2@sri.com; Web: www.nlts2.org
The authors are part of the NLTS2 research team at the Center for Education
and Human Services, SRI International.
1 NLTS2 has a nationally representative sample of more than 11,000 youth who on December 1, 2000, were ages 13 through 16, receiving special education, and in at least 7th grade. Information from NLTS2 is weighted to represent youth with disabilities nationally as a group, as well as youth in each federal special education disability category. The information reported here was gathered from parents/guardians of NLTS2 youth in telephone interviews or through mail questionnaires in the summer and fall of 2001.
2 Data for the general population are from the U.S. Census unless otherwise noted.
3 Computed by using data from the National Household Education Survey, 1999.
The NLTS2 Data Brief is produced by the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET), in partnership with the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2).