Study of the Effects of an Intervention to Reduce the Disproportionate Identification in the Category of Emotional Disturbance in the Los Angeles Unified School District

The phenomenon of persistent disproportionate representation of minority students in special education is now entering its fourth decade. Disproportionality is well documented in the literature and has been the focus of attention from federal agencies, including the Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Special Education Programs. In an effort to address this long-standing problem, Congress, in the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), required states to monitor disproportionality and provided them with broad discretion to impose sanctions on local education agencies. As school systems and states respond to this mandate, efforts to identify the causes of disproportionality must be coupled with sound solutions that are responsive to local-level variables. Despite persistent calls, the identification of effective interventions and solutions for disproportionate identification has been slow. This article describes the results of a longitudinal study that examined local-level variables in an effort to address the disproportionate identification of African American students as emotionally disturbed (ED) in a large urban school district. The article examines the effect of an intervention targeted at improving the referral and identification processes for students identified as ED, as well as the role of court oversight. Finally, the authors provide recommendations for addressing the mandates of IDEA 2004 as these pertain to the disproportionate identification of minority students. (Contains 4 tables and 4 footnotes.)