January 2026 Research Rundown
By Madie Spartz
As a reminder, in last month’s Research Rundown, we highlighted new research on the negative effects of immigration enforcement on student outcomes. This month, we’re sharing articles on:
- New recommendations for child care licensing and quality in Minnesota,
- How student family income informs disability identification, and
- The relationship between COVID-era remote learning and subsequent attendance
From Barriers to Breakthroughs: A Better Future for Child Care Licensing and Quality
Think Small, January 2026
This report, the culmination of Think Small’s convening of 40 field experts and engagement of 900 Minnesota families, educators, and community partners, outlines recommendations to improve Minnesota’s approach to child care licensing and quality. The authors highlight how Minnesota’s current framework perpetuates inequities, with families struggling to understand the bar for quality and providers frustrated by complex, compliance-heavy systems. The report suggests a new framework with three designations: Health & Safety Licensed providers meeting a baseline for safety, Recognized Early Care & Education (ECE) programs meeting industry-led quality assurance guidelines, and Trusted Caregivers, like family members or nannies, being “explicitly named and valued as a legitimate option.” Critically, under these recommendations, while each has varying levels of government regulation or involvement, all three options receive some level of public investment.
In addition to a new child care framework and funding structure, the report recommends the creation of a Minnesota Board of Early Care and Education. Current authority rests with the legislature and state agencies, with little meaningful opportunity for families or early childhood educators to engage. The recommended board would have seats for those stakeholders and a shared, public decision-making structure on things like statewide regulations and standards, approving accreditation pathways, and public reporting on ECE policy outcomes. The final recommendations include ensuring there are multiple pathways to achieving Recognized Early Care & Education status and consolidating state support for providers, reducing complexity and fragmentation of programs that total $48 million in annual state investment.
Why This Matters in Minnesota
This report, specific to our state context and challenges, provides a valuable opportunity for hyperlocal analysis and recommendations. Minnesota is one of the most expensive states in the country for child care, but as the report suggests, the high costs do not necessarily translate into better options for families or a clear regulatory system. Far too often, our youngest learners and their educators are not included in the broader education policy conversation in Minnesota. The recommendations in this report provide a framework to combat fragmentation and ensure that all Minnesota kids have access to a high quality education from birth to K-12 and beyond.
School Based Disability Identification Varies by Student Family Income
Annenberg Institute at Brown University, January 2026
This study, using population-level data from Oregon, found that high-income students are less likely than their low-income peers to be identified for special education services. The rate of special education classification for families in the lowest income bracket is almost four times higher than families in the top income bracket. This pattern is repeated within individual schools, suggesting that these differences are not simply a function of differences between schools that high- and low-income children attend. Conversely, 504 plan classification, which has fewer “procedural requirements” for eligibility and provides services such as extended-time testing, rather than specialized instruction, shows the opposite pattern: students from high-income families are more likely to receive these services than their low-income peers.
Reclassification, where a student’s need for special education services are reassessed and subsequently changed, seems to be common among high-income students: identification rates drop by 40% between grades 3-5 and high school for students from the wealthiest families. A similar pattern was not observed for lower-income students. Again, the reverse is observed with 504 plan identification. 504 plan rates for high-income students increase as students age; students in the top income percentiles are twice as likely to have a 504 plan in high school than students in the lowest income percentiles.
Why This Matters in Minnesota
While the data in this study comes from Oregon, the findings should serve as important considerations for policymakers and educators alike. Special education identification in Minnesota has increased over recent years but we don’t understand why. Furthermore, last legislative session, the legislature convened a Blue Ribbon Commission on Special Education tasked with finding $250 million in cuts to special education spending. These two realities—more students receiving special education services and a mandate to cut special education funding—run in opposition to each other. Without meaningful analysis of the root causes of increased special education identification, and patterns around access and identification, the legislature risks deepening inequities for one of the most marginalized student groups in our state.
Remote Learning in 2020-21 and Student Attendance Since the COVID-19 Pandemic
Annenberg Institute at Brown University, January 2026
This study looks at the connection between remote learning time at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and student attendance in subsequent years. There has been a lot of hypothesizing about the reasons behind the post-pandemic absenteeism crisis, but little longitudinal research. Analyzing student data from Michigan, the author found that students with 7-9 months of remote-only learning time missed more school in future years compared to students with 1-6 months of remote learning, with effects most concentrated for low-income students and students of color.
It’s important to note that the nature of school closures and remote learning during the pandemic make it difficult to establish causal relationships between those factors and other student outcomes. This is because being exposed to remote learning was not random; data consistently shows that communities with higher COVID infection rates, more low-income students and students of color, and higher shares of Democratic voters had longer periods of remote learning. With that in mind, it’s still critical to use the data we have to analyze COVID-19’s impacts so we can further develop our understanding and craft meaningful solutions.
Why This Matters in Minnesota
Minnesota, like most of the country, still has not returned to pre-pandemic attendance levels and, as shown in this study, the impacts are not distributed evenly across student groups. Students of color, low-income students, and students with disabilities are missing more school than their peers. Efforts are underway at the legislature to understand and address this issue, but there is still much to be done and it will likely take years for attendance to return to pre-pandemic numbers. Building a robust understanding of all of the factors that may contribute to lagging student attendance is critical for Minnesota to build a holistic and data-informed strategy on getting our students back in school.