Out-of-District Special Needs Preschool and Impact on Length of Placement

The overall purpose of this study was to determine the impact that enrolling in an out-of-district preschool setting at a specific county special services school district in southern New Jersey had on students' total time of enrollment in the district when compared to students that enrolled in the district after preschool. All students enrolled in the district were special education students whose needs could not be met in the local setting. The preschool programs offered integration with typically developing daycare children, while all other district programs were self-contained.;This quantitative study was conducted using ex post facto data collected between the years of 2006 and 2015. The goal of the research was to determine if there was a difference in the total time enrolled between the two groups of students and to examine factors that may have contributed to that difference, including early identification and early intervention.