A new report discusses retention and dropout rates in Utah:
As a group, Utah students with disabilities had poorer outcomes than their general education classmates, but outcomes varied by disability category, highlighting the differences among students with disabilities. For example, students with an emotional disturbance had the weakest outcomes overall. Compared with students in all other disability categories, they had the highest rates of leaving their school or dropping out. After four years of high school, more than 50 percent either dropped out or remained in school without graduating. Students with multiple disabilities, intellectual disability, traumatic brain injury, and autism also had four-year graduation rates below 50 percent.
Students in some disability categories had lower dropout rates than general education
students or all students with disabilities but still had low graduation rates. Students withautism, multiple disabilities, or intellectual disability had the highest rates of retention in grade 12. Under IDEA, some students with disabilities may remain in high school until age 22, which may, in combination with academic challenges, explain these higher retention rates.
This figure shows the four-year outcomes for the 2011 cohort:
