Racial-ethnic differences in educational trajectories for individuals with intellectual disability.
School years still divide by race among adults with ID—check diplomas before setting career goals.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tracked school years finished by adults with intellectual disability.
They split the adults by race and by birth decade.
Data came from a large US survey, not a lab experiment.
What they found
Every group finished more school than earlier generations.
Non-Hispanic Black adults still held the fewest diplomas.
Hispanic adults started behind but passed both Whites and Blacks in the youngest cohort.
How this fits with other research
Older UK studies saw the same gap. Horner-Johnson et al. (2002) and Tsakanikos et al. (2010) showed South Asian and Black adults with ID got fewer services, even when need was equal.
The new paper widens the lens from services to diplomas and finds the same racial order.
Arana et al. (2019) looks like a contradiction: in their data Black and Hispanic women with ID had more mammograms than White women. The difference is domain. Screening can be pushed by outreach, while school success is shaped by years of policy; one gap can close faster than the other.
Why it matters
When you write transition plans, expect Black clients to bring lighter report cards. Build extra time for catch-up literacy, job training, or college prep. Share clear steps for diploma programs and show families where to apply. Track whether Hispanic clients now face fewer hurdles and copy those supports for all.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Open each adult file, note highest grade completed, and add a diploma or GED goal if blank.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Racial-ethnic differences in educational attainment have not been explored among adults with intellectual disability (ID). Because adults with ID and racial-ethnic minority groups have been historically marginalised from educational pathways through life, they have likely experienced cumulative disadvantage. Therefore, investigating the intersection of ID and race-ethnicity is necessary to increase understanding of educational attainment among adults with ID. METHODS: Using 1986-2017 National Health Interview Survey data, we examined the educational trajectories of adults with ID, stratified by race-ethnicity (N = 4610). Generalised ordered logistic regression models were utilised to estimate the effect of birth cohort on educational attainment by race-ethnicity among adults with ID. RESULTS: Results support prior findings that educational attainment increased for adults with ID around the 1950-1959 birth cohort; however, this was only the case for non-Hispanic Whites. For racial-ethnic minority groups, the probability of attaining a high school degree did not increase until comparatively later birth cohorts: non-Hispanic Black adults did not have their largest gains in educational attainment until the 1960-1969 birth cohort; Hispanic adults did not have their largest gains in attainment until the 1980-1999 birth cohort. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence of improvements in educational attainment for all adults with ID across birth cohorts. However, racial-ethnic disparities were also present - educational attainment levels for non-Hispanic Blacks remained lower than for non-Hispanic Whites across all birth cohorts in the study. Hispanics were able to catch up to and surpass both non-Hispanic Whites and non-Hispanic Blacks by the end of the study period, despite lower levels of education in the early birth cohorts. Results from this study highlight the need to attend to race-ethnicity when examining educational outcomes among adults with ID.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2021 · doi:10.1111/jir.12830