A new study from Statistics Canada shows the proportion of students who graduate from high school and what this looks like for students with and without special needs.
Results show that nine in 10 students studied graduated from high school in B.C. with a Dogwood Diploma, meaning they successfully completed the provincial graduation requirements. This is mainly driven by students without special needs, according to the study published on April 5.
"Previous research has well documented that students with special needs are less likely to graduate high school and more likely to encounter barriers such as low family income, poor academic performance and other socioeconomic factors. However, previous research has been largely limited to examining graduation of one cohort and focusing on broader types of special needs categories," said Statistics Canada in the study.
The study focused on seven categories of students with special needs: students with gifted status, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), behavioural needs or mental illness, intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, physical needs and sensory needs.
After controlling for impacts such as socioeconomic characteristics and academic achievement, results showed that students with special needs were less likely to graduate high school in comparison with students without special needs.
Those with intellectual disabilities are the furthest behind and are 21 per cent less likely to graduate when compared to students without special needs. Students with behavioural needs or mental illness were 13 per cent less likely to graduate and students with physical needs were 11 per cent less likely.
Students with learning disabilities and sensory needs were also less likely to graduate when compared with students without special needs, "but to a much lesser extent" at two and three per cent, respectively, the national agency found. Students with ASD are eight per cent less likely to graduate.
When accounting for factors like individual characteristics, family background and academic achievement, students with gifted status were more likely to graduate from high school than those without special needs.
"These results highlight diversity among this vulnerable population and suggest that students with special needs may have faced other types of barriers in completing high school," said Statistics Canada.
"Differences in socioeconomic characteristics explained 11 per cent of the gap between students with and without special needs."
In addition, age was identified as the largest contributor to the gap in graduation rates between the two groups, while sex differences contributed much less.
The study also showed that there were more male students versus female students with special needs, excluding those with gifted status. More specifically, for students with ASD roughly eight in 10 were males, compared to a similar share of male and female students without special needs.
"Future research may focus on specific barriers and accommodation needs to shed light on challenges and opportunities for this vulnerable population to achieve a successful transition to adulthood," said Statistics Canada.
