Students with disabilities are lagging behind their able-bodied peers when it comes to high school graduation. As the U.S. is on track to reach 90 percent graduation rates by 2020, students with disabilities only graduate at a rate of 61.9 percent, according to the 2015 Building a Grad Nation Report released by the America’s Promise Alliance.
This outlook is grim, especially considering that students with disabilities account for approximately 13 percent of all public school students nationwide. But since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 25 years ago, some steps have been taken in an attempt to increase graduation rates.
When the ADA was passed in 1992 there was a shift in the percentage of time students with disabilities spent in special education versus general education classes with their able-bodied peers. The first school year of the 1990s saw the majority of students with disabilities splitting their school days between general and special education. But within just 10 years, almost half of students with disabilities were spending 80 percent or more of their time integrated in general classes. As of June 2013, that populacemakes up over 60 percent, while less than 15 percent of students with disabilities spent 60 percent of the day in special education classes. Overall, 87 percent of students with disabilities have at least one general education class.
