Indicator 14: Post-school Outcomes for Students with IEPs

What Is Indicator 14?

Indicator 14 is one of the 18 Indicators that the United States Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) uses to see whether school districts are following special education law and whether special education is improving outcomes for students with disabilities.

Indicator 14 reports whether our students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are in school or have a job one year after they leave high school by graduating, aging out at age 22, or dropping out.

Why Is Indicator 14 Important?

Indicator 14 tells us about the lives of our students with IEPs one year after they have left high school. It is one way to help us understand whether students' education prepared them for adult life.

How Does Massachusetts Collect Indicator 14 Data?

In 2023, Massachusetts moved to statewide data collection. This gives us a more comprehensive picture of the lives of our students with IEPs one year after they have left high school. This change to all-state data collection improves Massachusetts' ability to disaggregate and analyze data in a statistically significant way and to better compare Indicator 14 data with graduation data (Indicator 1) and dropout data (Indicator 2).

Data collection occurs during the summer and early fall. Districts survey each former student with an IEP using the Massachusetts After High School Survey. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) offers the survey online in six languages, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Haitian Creole, and Vietnamese.

What Are the Three Indicator 14 Measurements?

The U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) requires that we report "the percent of youth who are no longer in secondary school, had IEPs in effect at the time they left school, and within one year of exiting high school were:

Enrolled in higher education
Enrolled in higher education or competitively employed
Enrolled in higher education or in some other postsecondary education or training program; or competitively employed or in some other employment"

What Factors Affect Indicator 14 Results?

If groups are under- or over-represented in the survey (for example, Latinx students, students with intellectual disabilities, or students who dropped out), the data may show that our former students with IEPs are more or less engaged in school or work than they really are.
Both the interviewers and the former students may be biased.
Based on the response group size for Measures A, B, and C, there is a margin of error of approximately plus or minus three percent.

Indicator 14 Historical Results

Measurement	Measurement A	Measurement A	Measurement B	Measurement B	Measurement C	Measurement C
Trend Data	Data	Target	Data	Target	Data	Target
FFY2019	34.79%	50.40%	56.55%	79.80%	62.35%	87.50%
FFY2020	39.91%	40.00%	72.26%	73.00%	78.68%	79.00%
FFY2021	29.64%	42.00%	71.23%	74.00%	77.31%	80.00%
FFY2022*	36.85%	44.00%	70.42%	75.00%	77.02%	81.00%
FFY2023	38.08%	46.00%	69.14%	76.00%	81.17%	82.00%