Welcome to SEELS' Home on the Web!

This Study Has Been Completed!

Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS) was a study of school-age students funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the U.S. Department of Education and was part of the national assessment of the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 97). From 2000 to 2006, SEELS documented the school experiences of a national sample of students as they moved from elementary to middle school and from middle to high school. One important feature of SEELS was that it did not look at students' educational, social, vocational, and personal development at a single point in time. Rather, it was designed to assess change in these areas over time.

From 2000 to 2006, SEELS collected data at three points in time through school staff, direct assessments, and parent interviews to provide information about the experience of students with disabilities. We would like to thank parents, teachers, and students for all their help, support, and participation in this important study.

While the study has been completed, this website will continue to be updated. Data tables, which include parent interviews, direct assessments, school background, teacher surveys and school program surveys, will continue to be available for use. SEELS data covers a wide range of topics, including student and household characteristics, students' functional skills, parental involvement/expectations, school experiences, academic achievement, classroom instruction, social skills, self concept, assessment, accommodations and much more.

New reports will be added as they are completed.

The SEELS dataset is available in the form of a public use dataset on CD-ROM. Contact Meredith Miceli, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education.