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[quote=Anonymous]The Department of Education is the reason why special education is a mess and why there are so many disruptive students in classrooms.

The US Department of Education mandates that states are required to collect and examine data to determine if significant disproportionality based on race and ethnicity is occurring in the state and the
local educational agencies (LEAs) with respect to:
(A)  the identification of children as children with disabilities;
(B) the placement in particular educational settings of such children; 
 (C)and the incidence, duration, and type of disciplinary actions, including suspensions and expulsions.

Overall, there are 14 sub-categories of analysis (7 for identification, 2 for placement, and 5 for discipline) and local districts and states can be identified as significantly disproportionate in any of these categories across any racial/ethnic subgroup.

[b] Overall, there are 98 possible areas to be identified as having significant disproportionality.[/b]

So for example in CA one school district (ABC Unified) is getting flagged and is mandated to spend money because too many White students are eligible under Emotional Disturbance and too many Hispanic students are eligible under Specific Learning Disability. In Salinas School District to many white students are eligible under Autism. Fremont Unified is significantly disproportional in: Hispanic Other Health Impairment, African American Specific Learning Disability, Asian Separate Schools, Asian Under 40%, African American Overall.

Once a district is flagged they then have to spend money (15% of their special ed budget) on consultants, trainings, etc. to "fix" the problem. Districts and states are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on this mandate.

So it is easier to not suspend anyone, to allow students to be mainstreamed so one category of students aren't in a different classroom, to not qualify students for special education. This is really harmful to students who need a different setting or who should be suspended.

And if you have a kid who you want to get special education services but the district has been accused of having too many of your child's race in special education then districts are even more reluctant to admit your child should be assessed.  So let's say you are an African-American family and you move to an expensive area of San Diego called Carlsbad (it is where Legoland is) because you hear the schools are good and your child has autism. Well the school district is never going to want to assess your child or qualify your child for special education because too many African American students are eligible under Autism.

The same analysis is run for suspensions. So the easiest solution is to no longer suspend any student.

Plenty of educators who are Democrats are hoping the Dept of Education goes away.

[/quote]

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