Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Breaking: Feds Propose New IDEA Rule Concerning Race in Identification and Discipline #disproportionality
The U S Department of Education proposed a new rule today concerning racial equity with respect to IDEA. Data analysis by the Department reveals that African-American students are identified as IDEA eligible and subjected to harsher discipline than their white classmates.
You may recall that in 2013, the Government Accountability Office issued a report highly critical of the racial disparity in special education. See our blog post here.
The Department states in support of the proposed rule that:
"In order to address those inequities, IDEA requires states to identify districts with "significant disproportionality" in special education—that is, when districts identify, place outside the regular classroom, or discipline children from any racial or ethnic group at markedly higher rates than their peers. According to a new analysis by the Department of data states submitted under IDEA, hundreds of districts around the country with large racial and ethnic disparities go unidentified. For example, 876 school districts gave African American students with disabilities short-term, out-of-school suspensions at least twice as often as all other students with disabilities for three years in a row. But, in 2013, states identified fewer than 500 districts in total with "significant disproportionality."
You can read the entire 180 page proposed rule here. The Department of Education press release is available here.
What are your thoughts on this proposed rule?