Impacts of School Structural Factors and Student Factors on Employment Outcomes for Youth with Disabilities in Transition

This study aimed to examine school structural factors (i.e. free/reduced lunch percentage, proportion of minority student enrollment, and student-teacher ratio) that may contribute to employment outcomes for transitioning youth with disabilities beyond individual student factors through hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses. The secondary data for 3,289 students were obtained from the Bridges from School to Work Program, and the school structural data for121 schools were drawn from the Common Core of Data. The major types of disabilities for the student participants included learning disabilities (73.1%), emotional and behavioral disabilities (4.7%), sensory disabilities (2%), and others (20.2%). Around 41% of participants were female. The study found that employment outcomes (i.e., whether a participant secured a paid job and weekly job earnings) were primarily attributed to student individual factors rather than school structural factors, particularly prior paid work experience. The finding suggests the potential importance of effective transition interventions to improve employment outcomes for all youth with disabilities. Implications for rehabilitation professionals are discussed.