TY - JOUR
T1 - Examining the Prevalence Rates of Autism Diagnosis by Race/Ethnicity for Medicaid-Eligible Children Enrolled in NYC Universal Pre-Kindergarten Programs
AU - Strassfeld, Natasha M.
AU - Cherng, Hua Yu Sebastian
AU - Wang, Scarlett
AU - Glied, Sherry
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank NYU Health Evaluation and Analytics Lab and the New York State Department of Health for making the Medicaid claims data available and gratefully acknowledge the funding for this research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Policies for Action program.
Funding Information:
The work was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation [#24-45000-x-R3876]. The authors thank NYU Health Evaluation and Analytics Lab and the New York State Department of Health for making the Medicaid claims data available and gratefully acknowledge the funding for this research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Policies for Action program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Childhood Education International.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - This study examines autism diagnosis prevalence within the New York City (NYC) Universal Pre-K for All (UPK) program expansion into racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse NYC neighborhoods. Here, it is hypothesized that racial/ethnic differences in autism diagnoses may close as more children are referred for testing by UPK programs, which they have more thorough interactions with, instead of by public health clinics or other medical avenues. Using NYC Medicaid claim data from 2006 to 2016, descriptive analyses were conducted by estimating linear probability regression and generalized multiple logistic regression to examine whether the probabilities of being diagnosed with autism in comparison to two other disability types (as counterfactuals), learning disabilities (LD) and physical disabilities (PD), differ by race. Subsequently, a difference in difference (DID) strategy (with pre- and post-UPK expansion cohorts) was used to examine the effects of UPK on the probabilities of receiving disability diagnoses. Notably, Latinx and “Other” racially identified children have much higher odds than White children of being diagnosed with autism. By contrast, all non-White groups had much lower odds of being diagnosed with a LD. These findings offer important insight for future UPK and childhood program implementation.
AB - This study examines autism diagnosis prevalence within the New York City (NYC) Universal Pre-K for All (UPK) program expansion into racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse NYC neighborhoods. Here, it is hypothesized that racial/ethnic differences in autism diagnoses may close as more children are referred for testing by UPK programs, which they have more thorough interactions with, instead of by public health clinics or other medical avenues. Using NYC Medicaid claim data from 2006 to 2016, descriptive analyses were conducted by estimating linear probability regression and generalized multiple logistic regression to examine whether the probabilities of being diagnosed with autism in comparison to two other disability types (as counterfactuals), learning disabilities (LD) and physical disabilities (PD), differ by race. Subsequently, a difference in difference (DID) strategy (with pre- and post-UPK expansion cohorts) was used to examine the effects of UPK on the probabilities of receiving disability diagnoses. Notably, Latinx and “Other” racially identified children have much higher odds than White children of being diagnosed with autism. By contrast, all non-White groups had much lower odds of being diagnosed with a LD. These findings offer important insight for future UPK and childhood program implementation.
KW - Children with disabilities
KW - diverse settings
KW - early childhood special education
KW - policy
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U2 - 10.1080/02568543.2023.2213281
DO - 10.1080/02568543.2023.2213281
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85165245963
SN - 0256-8543
VL - 37
SP - 476
EP - 491
JO - Journal of Research in Childhood Education
JF - Journal of Research in Childhood Education
IS - 3
ER -