Study shows that schools discipline Black children with special needs more often than white students

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Black kids in special education lose a significantly larger amount of instructional time due to discipline than white kids, according to a report by The Civil Rights Project at UCLA and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard University.

This stark contrast is problematic and sheds light on disparities, showing that black kids are suspended at much higher rates than kids in all student groups studied, The San Bernandino Sun reports.

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The racial disparity is a persistent problem, said Daniel J. Losen, the report’s author.

“There is a huge amount of lost instruction for black kids due to their suspension that is very different from what white kids are experiencing and it needs to be addressed,” Losen admits.

“I was shocked and I’ve been working in this area for some time.”

The report, “Disabling Punishment: The Need for Remedies to the Disparate Loss of Instruction Experienced by Black Students with Disabilities,” found that “for every 100 students with special needs in 2015-16, white students lost 43 days to suspension, while black students lost 121 days.”

That a stark contrast Loren said.

“That is why the huge racial difference in the amount of instruction time lost suggests that black students with disabilities face an especially grave problem,” the report notes.

Those issues are compounded by the fact that a black child who is being disciplined is also missing out on services they would otherwise have access to like counseling, physical and occupational therapy, and tutoring.

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The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandates that students with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education, and states must track and report racial disparities, including in discipline, the SB Sun Reports.

The widest gaps in discipline between Black and white children occur in Nevada, Nebraska, Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee.

Also of concern is the fact that current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wants to halt the Obama-era policies designed to combat these racial disparities. She wants a two-year delay before implementation.

The National Association of State Directors of Special Education are against the delay.

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