Patterns of Early Intervention and Special Education Service Use in New York City

Little is known about how children use Individuals with Disabilities Education Act services across early intervention (EI), early childhood special education (ECSE), and school-age special education (SE). We applied sequence analysis to a data linkage across five public record systems among New York City children born in 1998, who had records from birth through third grade. Five predominant patterns of service use were identified: 1) Multiple therapies across EI/ECSE/SE (13%); 2) EI without transition to Department of Education schools or services (24%); 3) EI and intermittent ECSE/SE (16%); 4) older entry into EI and both speech & occupational therapy throughout ECSE/SE (9%); and 5) limited EI use and mostly speech therapy in ECSE/SE (38%). Each pattern had distinct demographics, service use characteristics, and academic outcomes.