Special NEETs: Institutional Influences on School-to-Work Transitions of Young People with Disabilities in Europe

Institutional arrangements and social background characteristics significantly influence school-to-work transitions (STWT). This study examines cross-national differences in the risk of being not in education, employment, or training among young people with and without disabilities and investigates how institutional contexts influence the duration of ‘not in employment, education or training’ (NEET) status among individuals with disabilities across 31 European countries. Using longitudinal data from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), multilevel random slope regressions were employed with interactions between self-assessed ‘limitations in activities because of health problems’ and institutional indicators. The findings reveal that higher rates of vocational enrolment, tracking in special schools and increased incapacity spending effectively reduce NEET-length among individuals with disabilities. These results underscore the importance of institutional contexts in shaping STWT and highlight the need for more in-depth comparative research on the transitions of young people with disabilities.