Long-term scarring from institutional labelling: The risk of NEET of students from schools for learning disability in Germany

Abstract

This article demonstrates the disadvantages that students leaving special needs schools (Förderschule) face in their school-to-work transition in Germany. We analyse whether the institutional label of ‘having attended a special needs school’ – beyond and above low school attainment – results in scarring effects for students’ chances of integration into training and employment after leaving school. We focus on students classified as having learning disability (Lernbehinderung), the largest group among students with special educational needs (SEN) and examine their NEET risk compared to equally low-attaining students from general schools at age 20/21. The analyses are based on rare longitudinal data for SEN students, the German National Educational Panel Study. Employing matching and regression techniques, we find that the label of ‘having attended a special needs school’ does generate long-term scars above and beyond low school attainment. However, this is only the case for school leavers with a lower secondary school certificate but not for those without school certificate. © The Author(s) 2022.

Keywords

Author Keywords

vocational education and training school-to-work transitions NEET Germany Special educational needs learning disability Educational attainment

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Universität Mannheim, Mannheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

Funding & Acknowledgements

Grant: BA 1213-15-46303, BA 13-17-00004

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The paper was supported by the DFG – German Research Foundation (grant number: SO 430/8-2) and trans-sectoral research funding by the WZB Berlin Social Science Center for the project ‘School-to-Work Transition of SEN Students.’ The data collection for SEN students was co-funded by the Federal Employment Agency (grant number: BA 1213-15-46303 and BA 13-17-00004).

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG

Grant: SO 430/8-2

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The paper was supported by the DFG – German Research Foundation (grant number: SO 430/8-2) and trans-sectoral research funding by the WZB Berlin Social Science Center for the project ‘School-to-Work Transition of SEN Students.’ The data collection for SEN students was co-funded by the Federal Employment Agency (grant number: BA 1213-15-46303 and BA 13-17-00004).

Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, WZB

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The paper was supported by the DFG – German Research Foundation (grant number: SO 430/8-2) and trans-sectoral research funding by the WZB Berlin Social Science Center for the project ‘School-to-Work Transition of SEN Students.’ The data collection for SEN students was co-funded by the Federal Employment Agency (grant number: BA 1213-15-46303 and BA 13-17-00004).

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Long-term scarring from institutional labelling: The risk of NEET of students from schools for learning disability in Germany

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