THE EFFECTS OF BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL RISK-FACTORS ON SPECIAL-EDUCATION PLACEMENT - BIRTH-WEIGHT AND MATERNAL EDUCATION AS AN EXAMPLE

The effects of bir lh weight (BW) and maternal education (ME) oil spec ial education placement at age 10 were studied. Epidemiologic methods quantified risk to the individual and to the population using an elect ronically linked, country-wide database of birth and school records. A dose-response relationship was found between BW and ME. High ME may s erve as a buffer for children with a biological risk for, developmenta l delays. A clinically!, important finding was that children born with very low BW to mothers with low ME were at a high level of individual risk for receiving special education services. However such children accounted So, a small number of rile overall cases. The largest percen tage of children receiving special education services had the single r isk factor of low ME. From a public policy standpoint, children born t o mothers with low levels of education ni-e an important group to targ et for early, intervention.