Discipline and Disproportionality in the New IDEIA Russ Skiba Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Indiana University Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Council for Exceptional Children Salt Lake City, UtahApril 6, 2006

Prologue: How Do You Spell IDEA? ``PART A--GENERAL PROVISIONS``SEC > SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS; FINDINGS; PURPOSES. ``(a) Short Title.--This title may be cited as the `Individuals with Disabilities Education Act'.

New Reporting Requirements Under IDEA 2004  Under Section 618, States must provide data on: Incidence and duration of disciplinary actions by race, ethnicity, limited English proficiency status, gender, and disability category, of children with disabilities, including suspensions of 1 day or more Number & percentage removed to IAES compared to children w/o disabilities removed to alt. ed.

New Reporting Requirements Specific to Disproportionality  Each state shall provide for “collection and examination of data to determine if significant disproportionality based on race and ethnicity is occurring in the State and LEA’s with respect to: A) Identification and B) Placement C) Incidence, duration and type of disciplinary actions, including suspensions and expulsions  15% rule: Requires LEA’s identified as significantly overidentified to reserve maximum funds (15%) for early intervention Does this apply to discipline?

Minority Disproportionality in School Discipline

Non-Discriminatory Application: 30 Years of Study  CDF (1975): Black students suspended 2- 3x as frequently  Studies since find disproportionality in: Office referrals Suspension & Expulsion Corporal Punishment  Evidence of disproportionality by economic status, gender, and disability designation

The Interaction of Race and Gender  Middle School Out-of-School Suspension (Raffaele Mendez, 2003) Black Males: 50% suspended Black Females: 33% White Males: 25% White Females: 9.3%  Black males 16x as likely as white females to be suspended (Gregory, 1996)

Raffaele Mendez (2003) Race, Gender, and Special Education  Black + Male + Special Ed + Poor = 67% suspension rate  These students are 5% of population, but: 24% of 3-5 suspensions 34% of 6-8 suspensions 48% of 9-11 suspensions 56% of suspensions 100% of 14+ suspensions

Skiba (2000) Disproportionality Starts in the Classroom

Rausch & Skiba, 2004 Disproportionality is Greatest at Suburban Schools

Rausch & Skiba, 2004 Disproportionality Begins Early and Persists

Used Heavily and Disproportionately on African American Males

Overall Incident Rate Comparison: African American and White Males

Alternative Explanations of Disciplinary Disproportionality  Disproportionality is related to SES SES and disproportionality correlate, but… Effects of race remain after control  Do black students misbehave more? No supporting evidence May in fact be treated more severely for same offenses

What Behaviors are Students Referred For? By Race  White students referred more for: Smoking Vandalism Leaving w/o permission Obscene Language  Black students referred more for: Disrespect Excessive Noise Threat Loitering Of 32 infractions, only 8 significant differences:

Improved Student Behavior?  30-50% of students suspended are repeat offenders “ Suspension functions as a reinforcer...rather than as a punisher” (Tobin, Sugai & Colvin,1996)  Use of suspension correlates with School dropout (school level) (Raffaele-Mendez; Ekstrom, 1986) Juvenile incarceration (state level) (Skiba et al)  Dropout or pushout? (Bowditch, 1994)

Percent Passing ISTEP by School Disciplinary Use (Adjusted for Demographic and Economic Indicators)

Disproportionality of Students with Disabilities in School Discipline

Students with Disabilities are Suspended Disproportionately  Leone et al (2000) Kentucky: 14% of enrolled, 20% of susps. Maryland: 13.1% of enrolled, 24% of susps. Similar in Minn., Del. Kansas (2.7 x as likely)  But 21st Annual Report to Congress (2000) finds no evidence of disciplinary disproportionality, based on 1994 OCR Report

Students with ED are Really Over- Represented  % of Students Reporting Susp/Exp (Wagner et al., 2005) Elem/Mid: 47.7% of ED HS: 72.9% ED El/Mid: 11.7% of other HS: 27.6% Other  Kansas: ED 7.5X to be suspended as likely as others with disability; 12x as likely as all students (Cooley, 1995)

Are There Disparities in Behavior?  More severe: GAO (2001): Serious misbehavior for SpEd at 50 incidents/1000 students vs. 15/1000 for gen.ed. Fiore & Reynolds (1996): Discrepancies in Weapons, Other Dangerous Behaviors, Violence Against Staff  Less severe: McFadden et al. (1992): Students with disabs less likely to be truant; more likely for bothering others, defiance Cooley (1995): No differences in reasons for referral  Leone et al. (2000): Do students with disabilities just get caught more often?

Disparities in Treatment  McFadden et al. (1992): Students w/ disabs. more likely to receive harsh, less likely to receive mild punishment  GAO (2001) survey: Principals report equal treatment for special/general ed.  Do students with disabilities account for disproportionate disciplinary effort? GAO: 31% agree Skiba et al.: 33% agree

Relative Disciplinary Risk for Special Education: Out-of-School Suspension: 2.21 Expulsion: 0.75

Do We Have the Capability to Collect This Data?  Fiore & Reynolds (1996): Only 6 states and 16 districts provided breakdown of discipline of students with disabilities by race  Indiana Data General education: By incident Special education: By individual

What Do We Do with Disproportionality?  (2) Review and revision of policies, practices, and procedures.--In the case of a determination of significant disproportionality with respect to the identification of children as children with disabilities, or the placement in particular educational settings of such children, in accordance with paragraph (1), the State or the Secretary of the Interior, as the case may be, shall-- ``(A) provide for the review and, if appropriate, revision of the policies, procedures, and practices used in such identification or placement to ensure that such policies,[[Page 118 STAT. 2740]] procedures, and practices comply with the requirements of this title;

Local Equity Action Development (LEAD) Projects

Studying Equity at Home: The LEAD Process  What is the Nature of the Problem? What does the data tell us? Courageous Conversations  Identify Actions of Greatest Potential Impact  Develop a Plan  Implement, Assess, Adapt

LEAD Projects Implementation  Ten districts currently participating in Equity Action Projects Pre-Referral Process Peer Coaching K-2 Instructional Project Family Involvement

 Deficit Thinking: Disproportionality due primarily to characteristics of minority populations (e.g. Herrnstein & Murray)  Critical Race Theory: Disproportionality as a decision to maintain the structure of white privilege (e.g. Bell, Delgado)  Cultural Reproduction: Racial/economic inequity maintained by roles and actions of individuals within institutions, perhaps unconciously (e.g., Bowles & Gintis, Oakes) ...Maybe We Shouldn’t Talk About It... Responses to Inequity

The Difficulty of Talking About Race “When you say minorities, are you, what are you speaking of?...[INTERVIEWER: Ethnic and racial minorities]...Oh....OK...Alright...We have like...I guess we have about half and half. I don’t know that I’ve ever really paid attention to it.” --Classroom Teacher

Race and the Relief Effort "The storm didn't discriminate, and neither did the recovery effort.” --George W. Bush "There is a historical indifference to the pain of poor people, and black people... we seem to adjust more easily to black pain.” --Rev. Jesse Jackson "The storm didn't discriminate, and neither did the recovery effort.” --George W. Bush "There is a historical indifference to the pain of poor people, and black people... we seem to adjust more easily to black pain.” --Rev. Jesse Jackson

Perspectives on Katrina: Washington Post/ABC News Poll, 9/13/05

What’s Your Theory?  Poverty?  Systemic inadequacies?  Community contributions?  Cultural incompetence?  Negative peer culture?  Historical discrimination?

What We Need:  Need formats that enable collection of the needed data WESTAT/OSEP calculation package  Need more research on intersection of race, disability, and discipline  Need models of change Leadership on the topic of race

Russ Skiba Center for Evaluation and Education Policy 509 E. Third St. Bloomington, IN fax: