Growing Up in Disability-Dense School Districts: Long-Term Impacts of Childhood Exposure on Educational Attainment

May 2026

This study examines whether growing up in a district with a higher share of people with disabilities shapes long-term educational attainment for children with and without disabilities. Using administrative data on more than 170,000 children from six Texas kindergarten cohorts (1994–1999) who move across districts during K–12, I exploit variation in disability density across school districts to estimate causal effects on high school and college completion. Moving to districts with higher disability density improves both outcomes for children with disabilities. Effects on peers without disabilities are positive or at least statistically indistinguishable from zero across specifications, providing no evidence of negative spillovers and suggesting that disabilityinclusive school districts may benefit all children.

Keywords

disability, neighborhood effects, educational attainment

Education level

K-12 Education

Topics

Pathways to and Through Postsecondary