Does Parental Disability Matter to Child Education? Evidence from Vietnam

This paper examines the effect of parental disability on the education of children in Vietnam. Having a disabled parent reduces a child’s probability of attending school by 16%, and lowers the expected number of grades completed. The negative impact on school outcomes is larger for boys, but is more pronounced when the mother is the disabled parent. The conclusion is that to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary school, the government should directly support the education of children with disabled parents and/or support disabled adults, thus lessening the incentive for their children to not attend school.