Document Type
Report
Publication Date
6-22-2017
Keywords
School vouchers, school choice, student achievement, randomized control trial
Abstract
The debate over school vouchers continues as more states offer government dollars to fund private schooling for students as a method of improving choice and quality in K-12 education. Previous research in the charter school sector has found that special education enrollment discrepancies between charters and traditional public schools is likely due to a mixture in parental choice making, differential identification practices, and the removal of special education labels. This study is the first experimental analysis of the impact of a enrollment in a private school choice program on special education identification and de-identification. Using data for almost 2,000 students who were randomly assigned to private schools in the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP), we find no statistically significant over impact of enrollment in a student’s first choice school on being either identified or de-identified in special education. Analyzing annual trends results in lower probabilities of identification for students in the LSP in Year 2 and Year 3 of the program and higher probabilities of de-identification in Year 2.
Citation
Tuchman, S., & Wolf, P. J. (2017). Special Education Identification in the Louisiana Scholarship Program. School Choice Demonstration Project. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/scdp/13