Segregation and Racial Gaps in Special Education

About This webage will discuss how segregation and racial gaps are present in special education. It will explain things to look out for/recognize, why it occurs, and how to potentially stop it from continuing in the future. With this, we will also be vaguely discussing what a disability is and what qualifies someone to be a part of the special education system.  

What is disability and how are you diagnosed? According to the ADA, a disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.(ADA) Disabilities range from hearing/vision loss, to mental illnesses such as PTSD and ADHD. A disability is NOT baed off of ones skin color or their cultural background. It strictly has to do with ones physical or mental ability to carry out a'major life activities'. In order to be diagnosed with a disability, you need to speak to a doctor or go see a specialist. Do not assume that you are disabled just because a stranger or a teacher told you that you are. Seek a medical opinion because you want to make sure that you are doing what is best for you personally, not anyone else.  

Why are segregation/racial gaps an issue? Segregation and racial gaps are huge issues that are seen throughout middle schools and high schools across the United States. There are many different factors that contribute to why these issues exist such as bias, incompitent/novice teachers, seeing aggression as a disability rather than a behavioral issue, and most importantly, looking at the population and where these students are attending school and how the diverty within it affects the numebrs.(Elder)  

Population 

Due to the segregation seen throughout special education across the United States, many people struggle to realize that it is not only affecting the black population but also the white. In a prodominantly white school, there are more african american students and minorities that are a part of the special education system than there are at predominantly black and hispanic schools. Because of this fluxuation, in majority white schools, the white students who are actually disabled are not getting the proper teachings and accomodations for them because their fellow classmates who are black are being placed in special education classes when they do not have a disability. (Elder) This in turn affects both students future outcomes because the african american student is being taught at a lower level than others their age, leaving them less prepared when they graduate and leaving the white student without the proper teaching and accomodations in order to succeed in the future.  

Aggression 

Throughout much research, it was concluded that majority of African American students that are placed in special education classes is due to their aggressive behavior and has nothing to do with their learning abilities or a disability for that matter. (Elder) Yes, there can be behavioral disabilities, but we are not discussin those in this specific situation. This is referring to the students that project aggression towards authority when told that they do not belong somewhere and are confused. Or, they have shown agressive behavior in the past and rather than dealing with it, chocked it up to it being a disability and that theres domething wrong with the student so they should just be put in the special education program.  

Teacher's Inexperience and Bias 

Due to some teachers not going through the proper training to be able to run special education or gifted and talented classes, it causes them to not know how to correctly identify those with a disability. This raised red flags when realizing that different schools had different definitions for a disability. One school even hinted at the fact that they saw darker skin as a disability and that thought was quickly shot down in the nineties. (Elder) Along with teachers being inexperienced about their students health, they are also clueless to their cultures, and tend to "whitewash" black, hispanic, and native cultures because it does not fit their curriculum. (Schwartz) It is also important to point out that although many teachers need to be certified to teach classes that differ from general education classes, it is good to note that some schools who are looking for people to fill certain spots will bypass certain criteria needed in order to ensure that the spot is filled in order to be able to offer those classes. Besides this, we see bias in teachers towards students; mainly minority students. This relates abck to the aggression aspect because teachers tend to have less patience with minority students and have much more leeway with white students. This is a possible contributor to the rise in "aggression" seen in african american students and why they tend to get suspended more often than white students do.  

Conclusion 

Disability is not the easiest thing to define. One thing that we can say for sure however is that it has absolutely nothing to do with race. With that in mind, moving forward with the knowledge that has been gathered on this topic, we can make it apparent to stop segregation and racial gaps in special education classes which will in turn help with the general education classes as well. It makes it so that everyone is getting the proper help that they need in order to all succeed. It is dehumanizing to be seen as though something is wrong with you when in reality is is an opinion that others have about you that they create into a reality. It is also dehumanizing to know that something is wrong with you and you are not getting the proper help in order to allow you to achieve what you know you can. Race is not a disability and it should never be seen as one! Work cited  

Elder, T.E., Figlio, D.N., Imberman, S.A., and Persico, C.L. (2021). Segregation and Racial Gaps in Special Education: New evidence on the debate over disproportionality. Education Next, 21(2), 62-68 https://www.educationnext.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ednext_XXI_2_elder_et_al.pdf  

Losen, D., Hodson, C., Ee, J., & Martinez, T. (2014). Disturbing inequities: Exploring the relationship between racial disparities in special education identification and discipline. Journal of Applied Research on Children, 5(2), 15. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1188495.pdf  

Schwartz, L., & Applequist, K. (2013). Racial discrimination in special education. In C. R. Reynolds, K. J. Vannest, & E. Fletcher-Janzen (Eds.), Encyclopedia of special education: a reference for the education of children, adolescents, and adults with disabilities and other exceptional individuals (4th ed.). Wiley. ADA https://adata.org/faq/what-definition-disability-under-ada