Predictors of Change in Eligibility Status among Preschoolers in Special Education

Abstract

Relatively little is known about the incidence of declassification among young children who receive preschool special education services or about factors associated with declassification. The Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (PEELS) follows a nationally representative sample of children who were receiving preschool special education services in 2003–2004. Data from PEELS show that approximately 16% of preschoolers who received special education services stopped receiving those services, or were “declassified,” each year over a 2-year period. In a multivariate logistic regression, significant variables predicting declassification included child gender, size of the district's preschool special education program, district wealth, disability category, ratings of problem behaviors, severity of impairment, and scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test.