The Effect of Teacher’s Aides on Students with Special Needs

This study investigates the effect of increasing educational support in regular classes on students with special education needs (SEN). We exploit previous randomized controlled trials that added teachers' aides to Danish grade 6 classes combined with rich register data informative about SEN and school assignment. There were three types of teachers' aides: a co-teacher with a teaching degree, a teaching assistant without a teaching degree, and a coach. We find that the treatments increased inclusion of SEN students in regular classes, by 7–8 percentage points, and that SEN students gained academically. Long-term follow-up data indicate that while the academic gains evaporated over time, the treated students were able to stay in regular classes throughout compulsory education and largely followed the same progression as their counterparts in the control group when they moved to upper secondary education. Finally, we show that the costs of the teachers' aides are outweighed by the saved costs of special education.