The IDEA provides federal funds to states to help them educate children with disabilities. Race has no bearing on determining whether a child has a disability, the educational services they should receive, the classroom setting in which they should receive them, or the right of their parents to advocate on their behalf. However, structural inequities in the IDEA, including time-consuming and expensive procedural provisions and ill-defined standards for meeting the educational needs of children with disabilities, allow race and wealth to intersect with the provision of special education services. The structural inequities in the IDEA manifest themselves in at least nine inflection points where race and special education meet. This proposal will describe the legislative history of the IDEA relating to race discrimination in special education, examine each of the IDEA’s inflection points, describe evidence suggesting that the intersection of race and special education creates racialized outcomes in special education, and offer proposals to limit or eliminate the intersection of race and special education.
- This event has passed.
Oct
27