Final Assignment option 1 Disproportionate Representation of Minorities in Special Education

As a special education teacher, I am amazed to learn about the disproportionate representation of minorities in special education, especially in boys. This is why I have chosen option 1 for my final assignment. I hope to discover why this happens. Misplacing students in special education services is a social issue, because it can be detrimental. Students are being isolated from their peers.  These students often have lowered academic expectations.  Children who are misplaced will feel they are not as intelligent as their peers or as important. In addition, by misplacing a student in special education,  it can be  stigmatizing and negatively impacts their self-esteem and achievement in school and later life.   Also, special education teachers are less likely to be content specialist in core subjects. It is important to remember that children need to be placed in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). By misplacing students, we are not challenging them to their full potential and therefore we are ultimately setting children up to fail. Higher expectations for all children, and better teaching and learning, would lead to fewer children being identified as having special educational needs."

While researching this topic, I hope to understand why this happens and help prevent or minimize the misplacement of students in the future.

The graphs below show just  how disproportionate minorities are being labeled and  are receiving special education services.  

A few resources that I tentatively  plan to use are

Low-Income Studentsand a Special Education Mismatch

Race, poverty, and interpreting overrepresentation in special education

Race Ethnicity Education Dis/ability Critical Race Studies