Education
Low Graduation Rates in NYC's Special Ed Classes
According to a new report from Advocates for Children, a New York City-based nonprofit that works to secure quality and equal public education services for the city's most impoverished and vulnerable families, fewer than 13 percent of the 111,000 students who received special ed services in New York between 1996-97 and 2003-04 earned regular high school diplomas, compared to 26 percent overall in New York State and 31 percent nationwide. The report, Leaving School Empty Handed (72 pages, PDF), also finds that graduation rates vary significantly by type of disability: 96 percent of children classified as having an "emotional disturbance" leave school without a diploma, compared to 89 percent with a "speech impairment," 83 percent with a "learning disability," and 70 percent who are "hearing impaired." The report was funded by the New York Community Trust.
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