by Bethany Johnsen
Back in May, we highlighted an interesting article from Money magazine on the financial cost of paying for a special needs child and the burdens it can place on the entire family. The writer stressed the potential cost for the siblings of a child with special needs, discussing his own difficulties in attempting to balance limited resources so that his typically developing child would not experience disadvantages. Now, a new study from the University of California, Riverside, suggests that having siblings with disabilities is an academic risk factor for students, with these brothers and sisters being 60% more likely to drop out of school than those with nondisabled siblings.
You can read about these findings in more detail in this Education Week article. The research suggests that, although some organizations do offer social support–focused programs for the siblings of students with disabilities, academic interventions may be equally necessary.