Special Education Identification Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Washington State

We analyze student-level data on elementary special education identification in Washington state to explore how identification rates changed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual trends largely mirror prior findings from Michigan: Special education identification rates plunged in 2019–2020, stayed well below historical norms in 2020–2021, but then exceeded historical norms in subsequent school years. We show the substantial recovery in identification rates through the end of 2023–2024—driven by delayed identification for students in cohorts that were in school during the pandemic and increased identification rates for students in cohorts that have entered since the pandemic—means that, in the aggregate, special education identification rates in Washington have now “caught up” with pre-pandemic norms.