Consider the following:

• Special education students are more than twice as likely to drop out of high school as their peers in general education (Harris & Associates, 1998);
• Youth with disabilities are half as likely to participate in post secondary education as compared to their same aged peers without disabilities (National Council on Disability, 2000);
• Current special education students can expect to face much higher adult unemployment rates than their same aged peers without disabilities (Wagner, Cameto & Newman, 2003);
• The adjudication rate of youth with disabilities is four times higher than youth without disabilities (Quinn, Rutherford & Leone, 2001);
• The pregnancy rate for youth with disabilities is much higher than the norm – among females with learning disabilities, for example, 50% will be pregnant within three years of school exit (Shapland, 1999); (Continued...)

Photo courtesy Ann Marsden