The student-teacher relationship plays an important role in the development of academic and social skills in early elementary (Torres, Domitrovich, & Bierman, 2015; Vitaro, Boivin, Brendgen, Girard, & Dionne, 2012; etc.). Although the importance of the student-teacher relationship is well-established, the importance for special education students is less clearly defined. Even less clear is the importance of the student-teacher relationship for African American special education students. The purpose of the current study is to clarify the predictive value that the student-teacher relationship in kindergarten has on the development of social skills and reading skills in first and second grade using path analysis. Specifically, two aspects of the student-teacher relationship, closeness and conflict (STRS; Pianta, 2001), in kindergarten were used as predictor variables for various social skill factors (SSRS; Gresham and Elliott, 1990) and reading achievement (IRT; Tourangeau et al., 2017) in first and second grade. Student race was included in the analysis as a moderator. Findings indicated both variables predict later social skills, though conflict is comparatively more predictive. Closeness alone predicted later reading skills, but only to a small extent. The impact of race as a moderator was limited. Results should better inform special education teachers, as well as general education teachers, as to what aspects of the student-teacher relationship should be attended to in order to promote growth in reading and social skills for special education students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds later in elementary. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]