DuPaul, G. J., Chronis-Tuscano, A., Danielson, M. L., & Visser, S. N. (2019). Predictors of receipt of school services in a national sample of youth with ADHD . Journal of Attention Disorders , 23 (11), 1303–1319. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054718816169

Accommodations were not specified; the focus of this study was the incidence of receiving school-based academic and behavioral support services, including accommodations, for students with attention problems and other disabilities.

An extant dataset from the 2014 National Survey of the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD and Tourette Syndrome (NS-DATA)'s follow up parent interview described a sample of 2,495 children with ADHD or ADD, aged 4–17 years old, from throughout the United States. About 34% of these children had concurrent cognitive or learning disabilities, and about 47% had emotional-behavioral impairments. Demographic data on the children including age, sex (male/female), race/ethnicity, languages spoken at home other than English (1.3% of sample), and other factors indicated that the sample was nationally representative.

As part of the data collection process for this data analysis—a follow-up to the 2011–2012 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH; Bramlett et al., 2017)—parents completed survey items from the Vanderbilt ADHD Parent Rating Scales (VAPRS; Wolraich et al., 2003) describing the nature and severity of their children's attentional symptoms, and their academic and social-behavioral performance, related to diagnoses of attention-deficit disorder (ADD) or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Students' performance was operationalized as school grades, disciplinary records, and whether students repeated academic enrollment in same grade levels.

According to their parents' report, students with ADHD had an incidence rate of about 69% for using any school services in 2014; the present incidence rate of using educational supports in 2014 was 62%, and of using classroom management supports was 60%. These rates differed by demographic variables from the full population rates; for instance, students with ADHD who were aged 12–17 used educational supports presently at a lower rate (60%) than students aged 4–11 (67%). Students with more attention-related difficulties (highest "severity") received educational supports at higher rates (74%) than students with fewer difficulties (mildest severity; 53%). The researchers stated, "Receipt of any school service was significantly more likely for children aged 11 years and younger, those with moderately severe ADHD, students with comorbid learning/cognitive or ASD/PDD conditions, or those with academic impairment alone or combined academic and social impairment" (p. 1314). The researchers also expressed concern that "about one of every three students with ADHD were not receiving any school-based interventions and two of three were not receiving classroom management, which represents a major gap in addressing chronic impairment related to ADHD symptoms" (p. 1314). They also observed that middle and high school students with attention-related disabilities were significantly less likely to receive any school services even when having similar or higher impairments, and being at higher risk of academic failure or disciplinary consequences. Limitations of the study were reported, and future research possibilities were suggested.