Does Exposure to Returning SEN Students Harm Peers’ Outcomes?

Returning SEN (special educational needs) students from segregated settings to regular class rooms may have spill-over effects on their peers. Using a combination of survey data and data from administrative registers from Denmark, I investigate whether becoming exposed to returning SEN students affects cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes of other students in the school-grade cohort. Using a student fixed effects approach to remove selection bias, I find that exposure to recently returned students does not significantly affect peers’ outcomes. An additional analysis on the effect on returners themselves finds that while reading results are unaffected, returners experience large improvements in math achievement of roughly 65% of a standard deviation over a three year period. Intermediate and advanced math skills are more affected than basic skills.