This paper studies the relationship between special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and educational attainment in England using a uniquely rich linked administrative–survey dataset. We combine the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE1) with the National Pupil Database (NPD) to follow pupils from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4, observing both school-level administrative measures of SEN and individual-level indicators of need, alongside detailed information on family background, parental characteristics, school attributes, and child development.
Our first contribution is to exploit this longitudinal linkage to examine attainment trajectories associated with SEND across compulsory schooling. Second, the richness of LSYPE1 allows us to control for a comprehensive set of observable characteristics. Third, to our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically analyse SEND in relation to Key Stage 4 outcomes, which are high-stakes examinations with important implications for post-16 education and labour market outcomes.
Empirically, we estimate value-added OLS models that condition on prior attainment at Key Stages 2 and 3, substantially reducing concerns about selection on unobservables and allowing us to interpret SEN measures as features of the peer learning environment. We find that pupils identified with SEND are more likely to come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, including poorer households and families with lower maternal education. Compared with their non-SEND peers, these pupils make less academic progress from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3, with girls experiencing a larger relative disadvantage than boys. These early disadvantages accumulate over time and result in significantly lower attainment at Key Stage 4. These gaps increase with the duration of SEND exposure: pupils identified with SEND for multiple years perform substantially worse than those identified for a single year. In addition, pupils with statemented SEND experience significantly poorer outcomes than those receiving non-statemented SEN support. The results are robust to alternative specifications, including propensity score matching and sensitivity analyses following Oster (2019).
The findings highlight the cumulative nature of educational disadvantage associated with SEND and underscore the importance of persistence, severity, and peer environments in shaping human capital formation.
Presented by:
Tanisha Mittal (Lancaster University)
Date & time:
March 18, 2026 12:30 pm - March 18, 2026 1:30 pm
Venue:
2N2.4.16
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