With the reauthorization of the IDEA on the front burner in Washington, the overrepresentation of minorities in special education programs has received a great deal of attention. Some education experts are calling it a national crisis.
Researchers at the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University say African Americans - usually males - are nearly three times as likely as whites to be labeled mentally retarded and twice as likely to be labeled emotionally disturbed.
As a result, African Americans are more isolated from mainstream students and more likely to drop out or end up incarcerated.
English language learners, on the other hand, tend to be underrepresented in special education, because their inability to speak English can mask learning disabilities.
Some of the solutions being proposed in various parts of the country include providing more equitable funding to high-poverty schools, more uniform and unbiased criteria for testing, and more special education teachers.
As a result of a desegregation order, teachers in Alabama are now having to undergo awareness training to help them understand the issue of overrepresentation and to equip them with instructional strategies and classroom management techniques to help all students learn. They also have to follow a new pre-referral process that requires them to employ multiple intervention strategies for at least six weeks before a referral can be requested for a student.
For more information, see the January 2003 issue of NEA Today or visit NEA's website [www.nea.org/neatoday].