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…

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…

We center the voice of Dwyan Moore, a Black 12-year-old boy, during his transition of being diagnosed with a learning dis/Ability. We do so to grapple with the problem of disproportionate representation in special education along race and dis/Ability, with particular attention to educational leadership. Disproportionate representation is a…

Students who are Black or Hispanic are now reported to be less likely to be identified as having disabilities than similarly situated students who are White. Although repeatedly replicated, this finding is often characterized as in error. I use a new statistical technique, the E-value, to quantify the likelihood that unmeasured confounding…

A school cannot be "good" unless it is good for all students -- including those with disabilities. In the 2018-19 school year, 14% of students in U.S. public schools received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, yet effective inclusion of students with disabilities is too often an…

The disproportionate representation of students of color in special education is a serious concern that has lasted for forty years. Research suggests that students of color are too often not identified accurately for special education and that the programs they are placed in are frequently poor in quality. This trend contributes to a…

The disproportionate representation of students of color in special education is a serious concern that has lasted for forty years. Research suggests that students of color are too often not identified accurately for special education and that the programs they are placed in are frequently poor in quality. This trend contributes to a…

State accountability systems have been a primary school reform initiative in the US for the past 20 years, but often produce unintended negative consequences. In 2004, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) implemented the Performance Based Monitoring and Analysis System (PBMAS), which included an accountability indicator focused on the percentage of…

This report is part of a five-report series on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that identifies the challenges facing English learners with disabilities and their families, as well as the unique needs facing students with disabilities from low-income families, and it examines how they fare in the public education system. The…

Recently in a "New York Times" op-ed entitled "Is Special Education Racist?" Morgan and Farkas (2015) confront conventional wisdom that there are too many minority students in special education stating, "The real problem is that Black children are underrepresented in special education classes when compared with White…

Evidence of disparate identification of autism at national and local levels is accumulating, but there is little understanding about disparate identification of autism at the state level. This study examined trends in state-level administrative identification of autism under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Prevalence rates and…

This report has been provided to the Legislature on an annual basis since the year 2000. This report is issued in the context of a change in focus for the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the federal agency which oversees the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) implementation in each state. OSEP's new accountability…

This study investigates ethnic differences for 295,945 children and youth with an autism eligibility reported to the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) by 49 states plus the District of Columbia. Data analyses used relative difference, risk index, and risk ratio (RR). Results indicate that 80% of states report underrepresentation across…

This study examined prevalence and relative risk of school-based autism identification by race, and the relations of each to state characteristics. The sample was drawn from general and special education enrollment data for students ages--21 in 46 states during the 2008-2009 academic year. The results show that 1 in 228 students nationwide was…