Can technical education in high school smooth postsecondary transitions for students with disabilities?

Participation in Career Technical Education (CTE) programs has been proposed as a valuable strategy for supporting transition to independence among students with disabilities. We exploit a discontinuity created by admissions thresholds from a statewide system of CTE high schools. Our findings suggest attending CTE high schools has large positive effects on completing high school on time, employment, and earnings, including for individuals 22 years or older. Attending CTE schools also results in more time spent with non-disabled peers and higher 10th grade test scores. These results appear concentrated among male students, but the sample of female students is too small to support strong conclusions about outcomes. Notably, these estimates are for a system of CTE high schools operating at scale and serving students across a wide spectrum of disabilities, and the estimated effects appear broad based over disability type, time spent with non-disabled peers in 8th grade and previous academic performance.

Methods
The dataset combines three primary data sources. Student admission records come from the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System (CTECS), a statewide school district consisting of 16 high schools. Information on student achievement, demographics, high school graduation and college attendance come from administrative records maintained by the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE). Information on quarterly earnings and quarters with earnings come from the Connecticut State Department of Labor, through Connecticut’s P20Win process.