Most adolescents with disabilities report feeling very positive about themselves and believe they will graduate from high school with a regular diploma, according to findings from a long-term study that were released by the National Center for Special Education Research, a branch of the federal Institute of Education Sciences.
Those youths are less confident, however, that they will attend a postsecondary school, and less certain that they will be able to get jobs that will pay enough for them to be financially self-sufficient, the study shows.
The findings come from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2, which was launched in 2001 to provide a detailed look of the characteristics and experiences of youths with disabilities. About 11,000 students have taken part in the study.