Minority Students in Special Education Programs

The special education programs in the United States have been designed to help children with special needs learn easier and fit in better with the education program. Unfortunately, many minority students get caught up in the mix and don’t get the proper attention they deserve. Furthermore, minority students are seriously over-represented in the educational programs. Many minority students are misdiagnosed and put into special education programs when in fact; they do not have a learning disability. This has become a growing problem in this country because it is seen as the easy way out. Schools all over the U.S. are doing this in order to not have to properly test and evaluate students for learning problems.

There have been numerous studies done on this topic, from assessing migrant students for special education programs to trying to understand why many language minority students are being put into special education programs. Data during the 1998-1999 school year showed that American Indians and Blacks were over represented in special education programs (National Center for Learning Disabilities [NCLD], n.d.).

The term special education is hard to define because recently, it has taken on many new meanings. During the 1960’s people were trying to get the Federal government to fund efforts to provide a free and appropriate education for children with disabilities. Also during this time and into the 1970’s, parents of children with disabilities began to address state laws that would require local education agencies to give special education services to students with disabilities (ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education [ERIC], 1998). Even after the passage of these laws in many states, children still ...

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.... & Costellano, J. (1999, January). Assessing LEP Migrant Students for Special Education Services. ERIC Digests #425892.

This talked more about migrant students and how they are affected by the education system.

National Center for Learning Disabilities. Minority Students Special Education. Retrieved April 18, 2003, from http://www.ncld.org/advocacy/MinorityStudents.pdf

This Website is affiliated with many organizations that are helping with the fight for equal rights of minority students. Mainly, this article talks about the basic idea of overrepresentation of minority students in special education programs.

Olsen, P. (1991, March). Referring Language Minority Students to Special Education. ERIC Digests #329131.

This article talked about the actual evaluation process of special education and how students are assessed to be put into these programs.