26. Special Education Overidentification: “Struggling Children”

From 2009 to 2011 we see articles making reference to “struggling children” in American public schools.  Renewal of the No Child Left Behind Act has brought out discussion of this group of children who have academic difficulties according to test norms.  The common denominator is academic difficulty and history says these are Title I children.   [...]

25. Special Education Overidentification: Poor Children

IDEA 2004 strengthened requirements for LEAs to quickly transfer special education documents between schools, especially for migrant children.  Poor record keeping can lead to recurring misidentification. Being poor does not necessarily predict school performance.  Poor Asian children statistically reportedly out-perform other ethnic groups, having higher graduation rates. Poverty is a macro-variable which includes clusters of [...]

13. Special Education Overidentification 2011: Technology

The availability of technology in support of IEP goals for many special education children becomes an over-identification problem when least restrictive environments are considered and dismissals comes up.  A child who can make progress but lacks tech support confronts a FAPE issue.  And if progress isn’t made, how does master IEP goals to meet exit [...]

11. Special Education Overidentification 2011: Gifted

Gifted children are frequently classroom management problems.  They appear to have behavioral issues.  Some end up in special education because they are evaluated as ADHD children.  Awareness is growing on this topic and more must be said.  The irony is striking, though; our brightest children in special education. “Frequently, bright children have been referred to [...]

9. Special Education Overidentification 2011: Hispanics

The National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials has published a paper with the title, “Limited English Proficient Students and Special Education” which addresses special education misidentification.  Hispanic school children are among the children misidentified:  “Specialists assume that approximately the same proportion of students with disabilities will be found in any population.[3] Based upon this assumption, [...]

8. Special Education Overidentification 2011: Black Americans

In May of 2002, The Alliance for Excellent Education announced the beginning of plans to re-authorize IDEA. One heading said, “MINORITY OVER-IDENTIFICATION: IDEA Reauthorization Underway on Capitol Hill.” At the same time President George W. Bush “created a special Commission on Excellence in Special Education,” partly to study the problem over over-identification.” Alliance reported: “The [...]

7. Special Education Overidentification 2011: Native Americans

“Over-identification of Native children as needing special education, including speech-language treatment, was a key concern identified in a recently completed study of Native American students in Washington state public schools” (Inglebret et al., Infusing Tribal Culture in Washington Schools, The ASHA Leader, 15, 24-25, 2010). In Washington state, there is an “achievement gap” between Native [...]

6. Special Education Overidentification 2011: Girls

We know boys are over-represented in America’s special education departments.  WHY?  There is some contributions of biological differences (cerebral dominance), or that is what is supposed.  But the argument doesn’t hold water.  The patterns of disproportionality in special education nationally are so distorted one has to think it is a systems problem only. A recurring [...]

5. Special Education Overidentification 2011: Boys

Nicholas Kristof, writing in the New York Times (2010), puts his finger on a problem concerning the lowered school achievement of boys: “A new report just issued by the Center on Education Policy, an independent research organization, confirms that boys have fallen behind in reading in every single state. It found, for example, that in [...]

3. Special Education Overidentification 2011: Limited Language

Too many American school children are referred to special education because of inadequate knowledge of English. Inappropriate teacher referrals send many LEP (Limited English Proficiency) pupils to special education. “For instance, in California, where students with limited English proficiency make up 22.2% of the student population, LEP students (also known as English language learners or [...]