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Documente Cultură
Austin Carter
Writing 39C
The Under and Over Representation of Students of Color with Learning Disabilities
education system despite various laws and policies that have been passed to prevent this.
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights’s data, students of color
are three times as likely to be suspended or disciplined than white students. Although the rates of
suspension and discipline are declining anually, there is still an obvious gap between white
especially
African
American
students, as
shown in
Figures 1 and 2
(Loveless).
Harshly
disciplining,
suspending, and expelling students of color in rates far higher than white students has
consequences beyond short-term. Because of these punishments, students of color are not only
being held back from advancing academically in school, but there are also being impacted in
conditons and factors outside of their school life such as “hunger, poverty, post-traumatic stress
disorder, exhaustion, and more” (Aparicio). All these factors negatively affect students of color
with disabilities because racial prejudice results in there being either a misidentification with a
disability, which may seem like a small number. Learning disabilities include but are not limited
to the following disabilities: ADHD, dyslexia, non-verbal learning disabilities, and language
processing disorders. The Individuals with Disabilities Education ACT (IDEA) was passed in
1975 with the intention of providing a free education for students with disabilities and providing
parents with the opportunity to speak up for their children. Although the IDEA intends to provide
support for parents of color that have children with learning disabilities, these parents still do not
have the proper information and resources needed, which becomes a challenge when they
attempt to stand up for their children and their educational rights. In 2016, additional regulations
to this act were added, which included data on rates of identification over racial and ethnic
groups. Essentially, if there is a large gap, the state is required to examine the local policies in an
attempt to solve the disproportionality. Of these 10%, there is a discrepancy among different
sources regarding how many of these students are white and how many are students of color––
some claim students of color are being over identified while others claim they are not being
identified enough. With that being said, what is being called into question is how many of the
students of color actually have learning disabilities and what are the effects of the students being
wrongly diagnosed or not diagnosed at all. Because the discrepancy with these numbers exists, it
is appropriate to question if student experience varies by race and class. It is no secret that the
United States has a history of creating limitations in the advancements that students of color can
make in their education. Even though the well-known court case Brown v. Board of Education in
1954 slowly opened many doors for African American and other students of color , these
students still find themselves facing discrimination in school, making it seem as if only white
students are benefitting off the results of this case. Overall, students of color are and always have
been easy targets to racist educators and find themselves suffering in the hands of indifferent
educators. As a result, students of color are either identified with a learning disability they do not
A reason students of color with learning disabilities would be under represented or under-
identified could be attributed to the fact that African American and Latinx students with special
needs are more likely to attend high-poverty schools that lack the proper and necessary resources
for students with disabilities. Considering many students attending high-poverty schools are
already finding it difficult to perform well due to lack of resources, their cultutral backgrounds,
or environmental factors, it becomes clear that their learning disabilities are affecting them even
more when they are not being identified. Because of the said scarcity, students of color struggle
throughout their years in school without ever being helped with their learning difficulties,
Students that go into school not knowing English are placed in English-learning classes
and programs; with that being said, the learning difficulties the students are having in class could
easily be mistaken as a sort of translation confusion. The students are given more help with the
language instead of help with their undiagnosed learning disability (Morgan 3). This is a
situation in which we will see white, affluent students having higher rates of learning disabilities.
Considering their first language was English, their troubles in the classroom are perceived as
developmental delays or disabilities, and therefore they receive the proper special education with
The blame does not lie solely on educators – Latinx students are also underrepresented
because of cultural differences and preferences. Some Latinx families may choose to rely on the
support of their extended family and can therefore hesitate to have their children properly
evaluated and treated for any learning disabilities they could potentially have.
disability because of the (or lack of) knowledge, resources, and opportunities provided to parents
of children with learning disabilities. White parents have more knowledge about acts and policies
regarding their children than parents of color are; in addition, white parents have a louder and
more present voice in politics and policy and can easily advocate for their children. These
resources and services are expensive and difficult to obtain, so it is no surprise that the white,
affluent families can obtain them easily. When parents of color attempt to speak up for their
children or question certain policies and regulations, however, they are often seen as aggressive
and ignorant, reulting in them being ignored at meetings with their school districts (Felton). Just
as language barriers in English language learners of color result in underrepresentation of
learning disability.
For most African American students, the issue does not lie in the language barrier.
Instead, the issue, as Dorota Celinska discusses, is that many African American students differ
Additionally, there are multiple reasons why students of color could be over-identified as
quickly considered
attributed to their race and therefore racist educators find it easiest to diagnose them with a
learning disability.
In Figure 3, we see that Latinx students are twice as likely to be classified with language
impairment. As mentioned earlier, this can easily be attributed to the fact that many Latinx
students are English-language-learners. Instead of attempting to teach the students and guide
them through their struggles in learning English, some educators would rather put these students
not have to cope with the inconvenience they might have with being a source of extra guidance
for the students struggling with the English language. If the students learn English with proper
guidance and attention, most of them would not have the need to be in special education,
Felton, Emmanuel. “Special Education's Hidden Racial Gap.” The Huffington Post,
education_us_5a187948e4b0649480745066.
Mitchell, Corey. “English-Language-Learner Graduation Rates Are All Over the Map.” Education
blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2016/01/english-language_learner_gradu.html.
Longitudinal Evidence Across Five Disability Conditions.” Semantics Scholar, 27 Apr. 2015,
pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ebd3/1319738bc0d2d4bd3d896ae2b29acf9668b4.pdf?_ga=2.24677664
4.1506541825.1524481186-9983550.1524481186.
Rein, Elena. “Separate but Special: Overrepresentation of Minority Students in Special Education in
America's Most Diverse City.” Education Policy Soc 399B, 5 May 2015,
soc399b.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/separate-but-special-overrepresentation-of-minority-
students-in-special-education-in-americas-most-diverse-city/.
Winegarner, Beth. “San Francisco's Special Education Classes Disproportionately Filled with Minority
Students.” The San Francisco Examiner, The San Francisco Examiner, 30 Apr. 2018,
archives.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/san-franciscos-special-education-classes-
disproportionately-filled-with-minority-students/Content?oid=2181649.