AbstractInterest in school effectiveness and performance indicators has been a major concern of educational research in developed educational systems throughout the 1980s, although little of this activity has been translated to the area of special educational needs. Drawing upon data from a national survey of school leavers with significant special educational needs (n= 618), indicators of successful post‐school outcomes are hypothesised. A model developed in the field of health economics (McGuireet al., 1988) is described and adapted to provide a theoretical framework against which effective provision for special educational needs may be judged. Ordinal scales on seven key variables are described and applied to representative case studies from the above data set. The hypothesised outcome variables are employment; economic self‐sufficiency; personal autonomy; role‐taking in the family; role‐taking in society; uptake of post‐secondary education and qualifications gained at school. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the health economics model (known as QALYs — Quality Adjusted Life Years) as a potentially useful method of considering the value‐added benefit of differing forms of provision for differing disa