Special Education Representation: Investigating the Identification, Response to Intervention, and Placement of Special Education Students in Minority Manjority Districts
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In 1975, congress passed the “Education for All Handicapped Children Act”, reauthorized in 2004 as the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, with a promise of six foundational principles to special education (SPED) students and their families. These principles consist of students receiving an appropriate evaluation, individualized education program, free appropriate public education, and be place in the least restrictive environment, while parents or guardians would be given procedural safeguards and the right to participate alongside teachers (Lee, 2024). In recent years, educators, parents, and guardians have contended that some of these principles are not fully honored in the school systems. Previous research has shown disproportionately based on race and gender among SPED nationwide (GBPI, 2022). Additionally, states only receive 40 percent of the allotted budget for IDEA federal funding (New America, 2016). These findings are important to note as they display a potential violation of Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), a vital principle of IDEA, and leave researchers questioning the possibility of more violations which leads to the scope of this project. Through the collection of publicly available data, this research suggests a difference is occurring between white majority districts versus minority majority districts. Specifically, the project explores minority majority districts’ SPED students being underrepresented and served at a lower rate than those in white majority districts. Districts from Georgia will be compared to identify gaps of service to SPED students by using IDEA principles as the measurement for services.