The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Educational Outcomes for Children with and without Disabilities: Evidence from Texas

• In Event: Poverty, Policy, and Economic Supports in Early Childhood

Abstract

This study examines how childhood neighborhood environments shape long-term educational outcomes and whether these effects differ by disability status. Using restricted-access administrative data on approximately 1.2 million children in Texas (about 1 million people without disabilities [PWOD] and 0.2 million people with disabilities [PWD]) who entered kindergarten between 1994 and 1999, I apply a quasi-experimental mover design following Chetty and Hendren (2018). This approach exploits variation among childhood movers to identify the causal effects of neighborhood exposure on intergenerational outcomes. Educational opportunity is measured by the average outcomes of non-mover students across six cohorts, and the model incorporates origin-by-destination fixed effects and displacement shocks to mitigate confounding from family selection and residential sorting.

The results reveal strong evidence of convergence in educational outcomes following relocation. Moving to a district with a 10-percentage-point higher opportunity level improves educational outcomes by roughly 2 percentage points after ten years of exposure, regardless of disability status. The estimated effects are slightly larger for PWD, indicating that their outcomes are more sensitive to neighborhood quality. This heterogeneity is most pronounced among students with learning and intellectual disabilities, who appear especially responsive to changes in educational environments. Furthermore, the benefits of moving peak during middle school years, suggesting a “window of opportunity” when neighborhood exposure exerts the greatest influence on long-term educational attainment.

Chetty, R., & Hendren, N. (2018). The impacts of neighborhoods on intergenerational mobility I: Childhood exposure effects. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 133(3), 1107-1162.

Author

• Pyung Kim, University of Texas, Dallas
  Presenting Author