How school segregation affects whether a black student gets labeled as having a disability
In Florida schools where almost all students are black or Hispanic, 13% of black students were classified as having a disability. Yet in schools where the vast majority of students were white, nearly 22% of black students get classified that way.
It’s a striking divide, and one that researchers say probably shouldn’t exist. The more accurate number is likely somewhere in between.
The result: Lots of black students may be going without services they need, and other black students are getting services they don’t — and potentially being pulled out of regular classrooms in the process.
Those are the findings of a new study looking at special education in the country’s third-biggest state, one that adds important new context to an ongoing debate about race and special education.
Civil rights groups and the Obama administration have backed controversial federal rules designed to address over-representation of some groups in special education — regulations that are being enacted now despite the Trump administration’s continued effort to delay them.
Meanwhile, researchers have been locked in a fraught debate over whether students of color are identified as disabled too often or not often enough. The latest researchsuggests the answer is both, depending on the racial makeup of the school. In other words: School segregation and special education are interconnected.
“The truth is complicated: Black and Hispanic students are over-identified with CONTINUE READING: How school segregation affects whether a black student gets labeled as having a disability
