The Diversity of School and Community Contexts and Implications for Special Education Classifications

This chapter examines the extent to which socioeconomic and racial demographics are related to special education disproportionality and in so doing adds to the existing research on the impact of segregation and desegregation on student outcomes. Using district-level special education classification data, student racial demographic data, community socioeconomic data, and student academic achievement data, regression models were structured to analyze the relationship between the socioeconomic and racial composition of a school district and the likelihood that Black students would be disproportionately classified as disabled. The analysis shows that as the percentage of Black students in a school district decreased, the likelihood that Black students would be disproportionately classified as disabled and the likelihood that Black students would be classified as disabled in general both increased. This demonstrates that racial demographic characteristics of a school district are related to the overrepresentation of Black students in special education.