Denial of special ed lowers attainment

Students with mild learning disabilities who were kicked out of special education services were less likely to graduate high school or enroll in college, according to what appears to be the first academic study of how Texas’ now-discarded cap on special education services impacted children.

The study found that minority students paid a heavy toll under Texas’ controversial policies when they lost tailor-made special education plans designed to help them excel in the classroom.

Researchers at the University of California-Davis and Cornell University conducted their study after the Houston Chronicle revealed the Texas Education Agency told school districts in 2005 that only 8.5 percent of their students should receive special education services. If districts did not comply with that arbitrary cap, they faced increased scrutiny or penalties from the

state.

“Our results suggest that students who are denied access to (special education) services experience significant declines in educational attainment,” the researchers wrote.

They discovered that students with minor disabilities who lost services were 52 percentage points less likely to graduate from high school, and nearly 38 percentage points less likely to enroll in college.

“For students who participated in free lunch, who are minority students — these are the students driving the negative longterm effects,” said Briana Ballis, one of the study’s co-authors and a Ph.D. candidate at UC-Davis. “It was students whose parents potentially didn’t have the ability to mitigate the removal from special education who were being affected.”

The TEA removed the cap in 2017, and the Legislature blocked the TEA from imposing similar limits in the future, after a Houston Chronicle investigation exposed the practice in 2016.

The study only looked at students who were kicked out of special education after the cap was enacted, not those who never were evaluated, diagnosed or given services in the first place. TEA officials estimated in 2018 that about 189,000 students who were not receiving special education services likely needed them.

In a statement Tuesday, TEA officials said they agreed that students with disabilities should be provided appropriate services so they can have equitable access to educational attainment.

“This is why the agency has developed a comprehensive strategic plan and is acting on it to enhance opportunities for students with disabilities in Texas,” the statement said.

Mark Alter, a professor of educational psychology and special education at New York University, said the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was groundbreaking when it became law in 1975, and the new study shows why Texas’ arbitrary cap of 8.5 percent was grossly unfair to students.

Penalizing school districts for exceeding a limit on special education “cuts out the heart and soul and the spirit of the legislation,” Alter said.

“I was in shock that this could happen in this day and age,” he said. “There’s not a kid who can’t learn, provided they get the appropriate resources.”

The study looked at students who were enrolled in special education before the 8.5 percent cap was enacted, and identified students who likely were removed after the cap was enacted. The researchers used data to track those students’ educational attainments and outcomes.

Ballis and Katelyn Heath, a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, found those most likely to lose services were in special education classrooms for less than 50 percent of their school days and often were diagnosed with conditions such as attention deficit disorder and emotional disturbances.

The effects of losing special education services, however, appeared to hinge on students’ backgrounds and the districts in which they were enrolled.

“It makes sense that students whose parents didn’t have the resources to help them outside of public schools are the ones being negatively affected, and those from school districts that have fewer resources,” Ballis said.

The researchers found that students who were kicked out of special education were significantly more likely to take exit exams and significantly less likely to pass them, and, thus, less likely to meet graduation requirements. Typically, those identified as special education students often can graduate with modified requirement and may not have to complete all the exit exams their peers must pass to get a diploma.

The study also noted that students, especially those in poorer school districts, were less likely to get helpful resources once they were removed from special education, and that students who were accustomed to having that support may have experienced profound negative effects when the help was taken away.

“The real impact this policy had was on students never getting diagnosed,” Ballis said. “In our studies, we do find students getting kicked off of special education, but if you look at the change of special education enrollment in elementary before and after the policy change, it’s really stark.”

“It makes sense that students whose parents didn’t have the resources to help them outside of public schools are the ones being negatively affected, and those from school districts that have fewer resources.”

Briana Ballis, study co-author