How Many Children Receive Special Education?
The AHRQ report notes that three retrospective studies and one cross-sectional statewide study revealed that between 9 and 38 percent of students with identified brain injury are referred to special education. Whether the reported referral rates represent adequate referral, underreferral or overreferral could not be determined. Students with traumatic brain injury who did not receive special education were not included in the studies. Thus, data are not available on the number of children who are functioning well without special education services. Question 3: Does Special Education Improve Outcome? Data about the effects of special education programs are limited, according to the AHRQ report. One nonrandomized comparative study, one small case series, one survey and five case studies provide varied results. The report notes that the methodology of the comparative study is flawed because the control group performed significantly better than the treatment group at pretesting, suggesting
