Enrolment of British Columbia High School Graduates with Special Education Needs in Postsecondary Education and Apprenticeship Programs: A Case Study of the Class of 2009/2010. Education, Learning and Training: Research Paper Series

This study combines information from British Columbia administrative school data, the Postsecondary Student Information System, and the Registered Apprenticeship Information System to analyze the postsecondary and apprenticeship enrolment rates of high school graduates with and without special education needs, in the six years following graduation. The report answers four questions: (1) Are high school graduates with certain types of special education needs less likely to attend postsecondary education than graduates without special education needs? (2) Are graduates with certain types of special education needs more likely to delay entering postsecondary education? (3) If so, does the gap in enrolment close over time? and (4) Are graduates with certain types of special education needs more or less likely to follow certain programs of study (e.g., apprenticeships versus undergraduate degree programs) than graduates without special education needs? Although gifted status is considered to be a special education need in British Columbia, graduates with gifted status are excluded from this analysis. Preliminary analysis suggested that graduates with gifted status generally have different patterns of postsecondary enrolment than graduates with other special education needs.