Outcomes for Youths with Serious Emotional Disturbance in Secondary School and Early Adulthood

Data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students are used to describe the high school performance, social experiences, postsecondary education and labor market participation, and residential independence of students with serious emotional disturbance (SED) nationally. Young people with SED are found to fare poorly compared with youths with disabilities as a whole and with youths in the general population. The high school programs and adult services provided to young people with SED are then analyzed in a search for clues to contributors to the poor pattern of outcomes for such youths and to opportunities to improve those outcomes in the future.