Published online in:
Educational Researcher
August 28, 2017
Paul L. Morgan, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
George Farkas, University of California, Irvine
Marianne M. Hillemeier, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Steve Maczuga, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Abstract
Federal legislation and policy increasingly seek to address minority overrepresentation in special education due to concerns
that U.S. schools are misidentifying children as disabled based on their race or ethnicity. Yet whether and to what extent
this is occurring is currently in dispute. We estimated racial disparities in disability identification using very large (e.g.,
Ns = 183,570, 165,540, and 48,560) student-level, nationally representative data sets and multivariate logistic regression
including school fixed effects models along with tabulations of percentage with a disability among racial or ethnic groups
across academic achievement deciles. Among children who were otherwise similar in their academic achievement, poverty
exposure, gender, and English language learner status, racial or ethnic minority children were consistently less likely than
White children to be identified as having disabilities. Minority children’s disability underidentification was evident (a) in
elementary, middle, and high school; (b) across racially diverse groups and specific disability conditions; and (c) throughout
the achievement distribution. Contrary to federal regulatory and policy efforts, minority children have been less likely than
otherwise similarly achieving White children to receive special education services in the United States since at least 2003.