The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs collects data on how states implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act through the mandated State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR). Some indicators in the SPP/APR require state educational agencies (SEAs) to report data by race and ethnicity.…

The purpose of this study is to explore graduation disparities among students with disabilities in the southern region of the United States and assess the impact of IDEA policy implementation within these 11 states. The intent of this research is to establish whether there is a connection between special education policies and graduation rates for…

We employ the metaphor of an educational ecosystem to explain how racial inequity in special education manifests in a midsized urban school district via equity expressions and experiences. We focus on two ecosystems operating at the mesol-evel within school districts: 1) special education and 2) equity ecosystems. We show how these educational…

Disproportionality and inequity exist in the special education services that U.S. children receive based on factors such as race, geographic location, and resources of the school system. Overrepresentation and underrepresentation are both prevalent issues and can vary by region or school district and are likely due to multiple factors. Although…

The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) was passed in 1975 in an effort to ensure that children with disabilities were provided with an equitable education when compared to their nondisabled peers. IDEA requires schools throughout the country to educate students with disabilities in the most appropriate setting. Despite this federal law,…

The Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA) safeguards the learning of students with disabilities and protects them from nondiscriminatory assessments that identify their disabilities and align them with the special education support and services required. However, when the IDEA is not adequately followed, students with disabilities…

The purpose of the current study was to determine the probability that a student with a disability not being served by Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) would be expelled. Expulsion data were obtained from the Civil Rights Data Collection produced by the U.S. Office of Civil Rights. The latest data from all 50 states and the…

This case highlights the moral and ethical dilemmas that principals and educators confront when making decisions about special education classification and placement, particularly in the context of racial disproportionality. These decisions are complex, influenced by the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a method for providing academic support to students and for identifying specific learning disabilities (SLDs). Using interrupted time series and hazard models, we examined if statewide RTI adoption in the U.S. state of Tennessee was associated with changes in rates of SLD and first-time SLD identification in…

Assistive technology (AT) was recognized by Congress as a viable need for people with disabilities when it passed the Tech Act in 1988. The legislation, which was reauthorized in 1994, has resulted in numerous programs and services that have helped people with disabilities access and use AT devices. The Tech Act's implications for people with…

I provide a broad frame for understanding racial disproportionality in special education by showing how the inequity is a byproduct of the educational debt. I used a single case study design that relied upon qualitative semi-structured interviews, document analyses, and school board meeting transcripts gathered from a mid-sized urban school…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ([IDEA] 2004; IDEA Amendments 1997) is a civil rights--based law designed to protect the rights of students with disabilities in U.S. schools. However, decades after the initial passage of IDEA, racial inequity in special education classifications, placements, and suspensions are evident. In this…

Purpose: This study aimed to determine if eligibility for special education and related services (SERS) in New Jersey (NJ) is biased based on a child's racial/ cultural background or socioeconomic status (SES). Method: A Qualtrics survey was administered to NJ child study team personnel including speech-language pathologists, school psychologists,…

Research has indicated that African American children are placed in special education programs at a significantly higher rate than children from other races (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019b). Limited research has been conducted to address what is causing this overrepresentation. For this reason, research on African American…

The problem that was addressed in this study was a rural school district in southeastern Georgia was identified by the Georgia Department of Education as overidentifying African American students as having an intellectual disability (ID). The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of special education eligibility team members…