Causal Benefits of Arts Education for Students with Disabilities

Employing administrative data from a randomized controlled trial of 42 elementary and middle public schools, we investigate the causal effects of Houston’s Arts Access Initiative for the population of K-8 students receiving special education services. We find that substantially increasing arts learning opportunities in under-resourced schools led to fewer disciplinary infractions, improved attendance, and higher writing scores on standardized tests for students with disabilities. We find no evidence that increased arts instruction crowds out achievement in tested subjects, alleviating concerns that reallocating time toward the arts undermines performance in core academic areas. Treatment-effect heterogeneity analysis reveals larger reductions in disciplinary infractions for male students, and notably larger positive effects on attendance for students with autism. Our findings provide policy-relevant evidence of the value of arts learning for students with disabilities.