Facts You Can Use

Reprint from INFORMATION FROM HEATH June-July/1993

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HEATH provides the following as a service to readers who write papers, present conference sessions, apply for funds, address public policy makers, and otherwise need to "make a case" concerning the education after high school of students with disabilities. You may quote exactly what is stated here and cite the sources as noted under the facts, or obtain the sources and select the statistics you need. Readers are welcome to call HEATH and talk about these data to Rhona Hartman or Laura Samberg.

College Freshmen with Disabilities

• The percentage of first-time, full-time freshmen reporting disabilities has increased significantly since the later 1970s. In 1991, 8.8 percent of all freshmen reported having some types of disability, compared with 2.6 percent in 1978.
• Sight and learning disabilities were identified most frequently by freshmen with disabilities in 1991, with about 25 percent reporting each type. (Chart not available in on-line version)
• The proportion of freshmen with disabilities citing learning disabilities increased from 15 percent in 1985 to 25 percent in 1991.
• Freshmen with disabilities were more likely to be male and older than non-disabled students.
• Freshmen with disabilities expected to take longer than the normal time to complete their degrees and were more likely to select a college based on its special program offerings.
• Women were more likely than men to have sight and health-related disabilities and need math and science tutoring.
• Freshmen with orthopedic disabilities tended to be older than other disabled students and more likely to have finished high school some years before entering college or to have passed the GED exam.
• Freshmen with learning disabilities were most likely to be enrolled in two-year campuses (59 percent), while another two-fifths (40 percent) were enrolled at universities and four-year colleges. One percent were enrolled at historically black colleges and universities.
• Freshmen with disabilities who were enrolled in historically black colleges and universities were more likely to report being blind or partially sighted, or having a health related disability.
• Freshmen with disabilities were more likely to come from lower-income families and less likely to have received financial assistance from their families than non-disabled students. In addition, disabled freshmen were less likely to contribute savings from summer work the previous summer. Both disabled and non- disabled received help from federal financial aid programs, private grants, and institutionally financed college loans.
• Across most major fields of study, disabled and other students expressed similar expectations. Where they differed: students with disabilities were more interested in technical fields than their non- disabled peers and less interested in being business majors.

(Source: Cathy Henderson, College Freshmen with Disabilities: A Statistical Profile, published in 1992 by the HEATH Resource Center of the American Council on Education. Single copies of the report are available for $10 (multiple copies are $7.50 each) prepaid from the American Council on Education, Box FD, One Dupont Circle, Washington, DC 20036.)

Basis of exit for high school students, 1989-90

• Over 220,000 students with disabilities left the special education system in 1989-90.
• More than four in ten students with disabilities, age 14 or older, graduated from high school with a diploma.
• More than one in ten students with disabilities, age 14 or older, graduated from high school with a certificate.
• One quarter of the students with disabilities, age 14 or older, dropped out of high school before completion.
• Students with specific learning disabilities represent the largest (129,000) number of the "exiting" population. Slightly more than half of them (52%) were reported to have earned diplomas. Other groups in which more than half of the departing students obtained diplomas were those with visual impairment (61%), deaf- blindness (61%), hearing impairment (59%), and orthopedic impairment (58%)

Source: Fourteenth Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1992). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, pp. 33-34. The Fourteenth Annual Report is a compilation of educational data that each state sent to the Department of Education for the academic year 1989-1990. The report is available from the Clearinghouse on Disability Information, U.S. Department of Education, 330 C Street, SW, Washington, DC 20202-2525. (202) 205-9864.

National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students

The following data are taken from the National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students, conducted by SRI International under contract with the Office of Special Education Programs within the U.S. Department of Education. The SRI data are based on a sample of over 8,000 special education students aged 13 to 23 between the years 1987 to 1989. Data was first collected in 1987 from parent interviews, contacts with educators, and information from the students' school records. Data collection was repeated in 1990 to track changes in experiences over time. The data below highlight some of the changes in the area of participation in postsecondary education.

Postsecondary education participation

• Within the first two years after exiting high school, 15% of students with disabilities had attended postsecondary school during the preceding year; three to five years after leaving school, 27% of students with disabilities had ever attended postsecondary education.
• Comparatively, two years after leaving school, 56% of students without disabilities had attended postsecondary school during the preceding year; three to five years after leaving school, 68% of students with disabilities had ever attended postsecondary education.
• Thus, many disabled and non-disabled students alike who did not enroll in postsecondary education immediately after high school, do attend at a future date. For both students with and without disabilities, enrollment rates are 12% higher three to five years after high school than they were two years after high school. Students with disabilities are almost twice as likely to enroll in postsecondary education three to five years after high school as they are two years after high school. However, there is still a gap in enrollment rates between students with disabilities and students without disabilities; at both time intervals, students with disabilities enroll in postsecondary education at significantly lower rates than do students without disabilities.

Enrollment trends by disability category

• Among the different disability categories, there is a great deal of variation in postsecondary education participation rates.
• Two years after leaving high school, the participation rates for students who are deaf were the highest (36.4); the next largest rates were for students with speech impairments (34.0); and students with visual impairments (33.0).
• Three to five years after leaving high school, the participation rates in postsecondary education were the highest for students who are hard of hearing (60.4); the next highest rates were for students who are deaf (60.0); and students with visual impairments (57.0).
• Of all students with disabilities, students with sensory impairments attend postsecondary education at rates most similar to students without disabilities.