Module 1-Disproportionate Identification of African American in Special Education Programs-3 hours

The problem of the disproportionate identification of minorities in has been around for more than fifty years. In 1997 the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) required all states collect and analyze the data on disproportionality. Minority students, specifically African Americans, Latino, and Native Americans tended to be overidentified for students eligible for programs for the cognitively impaired. Several factors began to surface as causes, including poverty, unequal educational opportunities and flawed special education referral placement processes.

This professional development opportunity should include the following:

• 1.) school leaders,
• 2.) both special education and general education teachers,
• 3.)school psychologists, parents and
• 4.) those responsible for the placement of eligible students.

Participants will be exposed to the specific statistical methods used to determine disproportionality in districts and in states as well as the supports provided by the federal government to meet the timelines. Workshop participants will be exposed to useful strategies for talking about race, gender and poverty issues. This workshop will discuss some of the methods for eliminating over and under identification for special education programs. We will discuss some of the legal matters that have surfaces while districts have addressed this challenge.

Contact FYI-CSI for more information and answers by our team of consultants for services in special education world wide.