The Pre‐Elementary Education Longitudinal Study

Special Education Services Received by Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders From Preschool Through High School

“…PEELS followed a nationally representative sample of more than 3,000 children ages 3 through 5 across five waves of data collection from 2004 through 2009 (Carlson, Posner, & Lee, 2010). SEELS involved a nationally representative sample of more than 10,000 special education students ages 6 through 13, collecting data in 2000–01, 2001–02, and 2004–05 (Wagner & Blackorby, 2004; Wagner, Kutash, Duchnowski, & Epstein, 2005).…”

“…The first stage involved selecting local education agencies (LEAs) stratified by region, size (student enrollment), and wealth (percentage eligible for free/reduced price lunches), from which students receiving special education services in each disability category were randomly selected from the rosters of participating LEAs or special schools. This sampling procedure enables generalization of findings to the national population of students with ASDs as well as to students with disabilities as a whole and to those in each special education disability category (Carlson et al, 2010; Wagner & Blackorby, 2004; Wagner et al, 2005). PEELS, SEELS, and NLTS2 surveyed special educators regarding special education service receipt for 110, 690, and 580 students with ASDs at the first wave of data collection, respectively.…”

“…PEELS surveyed preschool teachers on whether a child received each type of service through the school system during the current school year, with a response rate of 74% (Carlson et al, 2010). SEELS and NLTS2 both surveyed school personnel knowledgeable about students’ programs to report on services included on a student’s IEP and provided to him/her by or through the school during the current school year, with response rates of 60% and 50%, respectively (Wagner & Blackorby, 2004; Javitz & Wagner, 2005).…”

Characterizing Early Childhood Disabilities in a Nationally Representative Sample Using Functional Profiles

“…For Wave 1 data, response rates were 96%, 79%, and 72% for parents, teachers, and administrators, respectively. During data preparation for the restricted-use data set, missing data were imputed for selected items (see PEELS user’s manual; Carlson, Posner, & Lee, 2008). No additional data imputation was conducted for the present analyses.…”

“…Family variables were home living environment, marital status, and family income. School variables were school or program quality, school or neighborhood income, number of children with IEPs in class, number of children without IEPs in class, and focus of the child’s IEP goals (PEELS user’s manual; Carlson et al, 2008).…”