Why They Come and Go: Comparing Special Education and General Education Students in Cyber Schools

Considerable published research explores drivers of parent choice for in-person schools, but few studies have addressed reasons for attending full-time cyber schools, and how student characteristics affect those reasons; hence, this study's unique contribution. Here we use a large national dataset (n= 95,259) to test whether students with disabilities differ in stated reasons for attending a multistate cyber charter school network. Using linear probability models, we find that parents of children with disabilities are relatively more likely than others to cite academic, bullying, and health concerns as driving their choice of schools. Interestingly, parents of children with disabilities offered more reasons for leaving their prior schools than reasons that attracted them to the online school. Also, students with disabilities whose parents cited academic reasons for enrollment in the cyber school were less likely to persist in the school the next year. Implications are discussed, including the relevance of accessibility challenges for online students with disabilities attempting to access online tools and instructional materials. Future research suggestions focus on the importance of collaboration for all stakeholders of online students with disabilities.