National trends in changes in special education classification among pre-elementary education children

Classification changes are common in special education. Using the first four years of the Pre-elementary Education Longitudinal Study data set (N = 3000), we investigated national trends in classification changes among young children with disabilities, the relationship between classification changes and children's demographic information, and the relations between classification changes and children's performance outcomes over time. The results revealed that declassification rates ranged from 35.6% for the three-year-old cohort to 46.3% for the five-year-old cohort. Approximately 25% to 35% of the children in each age cohort were reclassified at least once. The results showed that the prevalence rates of de/reclassification differed according to children's demographic characteristics without consistent pattern. The study also revealed that reclassified children consistently exhibited lower performance than those without classification changes over time. The results suggest that reclassification did not help children "catch up" with those who remained in the same disability categories.