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A Decade of Disproportionality: A State-Level Analysis of African American Students Enrolled in the Primary Disability Category of Speech or Language Impairment.
- Source :
-
Language, speech, and hearing services in schools [Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch] 2019 Apr 23; Vol. 50 (2), pp. 267-282. - Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- Purpose This study aimed to determine if African American students were disproportionately represented between the years of 2004 and 2014 in the primary disability category of Speech or Language Impairment (S/LI) under the 2004 reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. Method S/LI enrollment data from the Office of Special Education Programs and general enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics were analyzed to compare the risk of primary S/LI category enrollment of African American students to that of all other students. Risk ratios with 99% confidence intervals were calculated for each state across the 10 years studied. Results An average of 75% of states disproportionately represented African American students in the S/LI category each year; on average, 62% underrepresented African American students, and 14% overrepresented them. A post hoc analysis of the relationship between African American student representation and population densities revealed that states with high African American population densities almost exclusively underrepresented African American students and states with low densities tended toward a proportionate representation. Conclusions African American students were largely underrepresented in the category of S/LI in the years studied. These findings, alongside historic and chronic overrepresentation in other categories of special education, are discussed in the context of the fragmented harm theory ( Payne, 1984 ; Voulgarides, 2018 ; Voulgarides, Zwerger, & Noguera, 2013 ) and the disability rights and critical race theory ( Annamma, Connor, & Ferri, 2013 ). Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7967024.
- Subjects :
- Adolescent
Adult
Black or African American
Child
Communication Disorders
Education, Special
Female
Health Status Disparities
Humans
Language Development Disorders epidemiology
Learning Disabilities epidemiology
Male
Risk
Social Stigma
Speech
Speech Disorders epidemiology
Students
United States
Young Adult
Disabled Persons
Language Development Disorders ethnology
Learning Disabilities ethnology
Speech Disorders ethnology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1558-9129
- Volume :
- 50
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Language, speech, and hearing services in schools
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 30973798
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_LSHSS-17-0149