A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Number and Characteristics of Students with Disabilities in Inner-City Districts

Disabilities

                                    Inner-City          Non-inner-city Disability                        Number  Percent     Number    Percent ==========                       =======  =======     ======    ======= Specific learning disabilities   554,044    5.1%   1,684,256      5.4% Speech or language impairments   232,949    2.1      847,552      2.7 Mental retardation               147,819    1.4      403,450      1.3 Serious emotional disturbance     89,342    0.8      205,314      0.7 Multiple impairments              29,625    0.3       45,570      0.2 Hearing impairments               16,209    0.2       36,614      0.1 Orthopedic impairments            13,964    0.1       27,768      0.1 Other health impairments          23,268    0.2       58,041      0.2 Visual impairments                 6,135    0.1       15,118      0.1 Autism                             7,001    0.1        8,202      0.0 Deaf-blindness                       713    0.0        1,115      0.0 Traumatic brain injury               463    0.0        2,661      0.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- All disabilities               1,121,532   10.4%   3,335,661     10.8% 

SOURCE: The 1992 Office for Civil Rights Elementary and Secondary School Survey and the 1992 Common Core of Data Public School Universe File.

Socioeconomic Status

Data from the NLTS,⁴ which included a nationally representative sample of secondary school students, indicate that families of students with disabilities in urban areas are more likely to live in poverty than families of students in suburban or rural areas. At the time of the study, 47 percent of urban youth with disabilities lived in households with an annual income of less than $12,000 in 1986 dollars, compared to 34 percent of rural and 19 percent of suburban youth with disabilities (Valdés et al., 1990).

Limited English Proficiency

Urban districts in general, and inner-city districts in particular, enroll a greater percentage of limited English proficient students than nonurban schools, and some large urban centers have very high concentrations of limited English proficient students. OCR data suggest that 5 percent of special education students in inner-city districts have limited English proficiency, compared to 1 percent in non-inner-city districts. In addition, NLTS data suggest that 4 percent of secondary school students with disabilities in urban areas speak another language at home, compared to 2 percent in nonurban areas (Vald?s et al., 1990).

Racial/Ethnic Identity

Harry (1992) used OCR data to analyze the special education enrollment rate, by race/ethnicity, for the nation as a whole and in selected States. She reports that placement of African American students in special education is generally high relative to their representation in the general student population. Harry found that 16 percent of all students in the nation are African Americans, but they account for 35 percent of the students with educable mental retardation, 27 percent of the students with trainable mental retardation, and 27 percent of the students with serious emotional disturbance.⁵ In examining special education placements for Hispanic students, Harry found that in some individual States and in some disability categories, Hispanics are over and underrepresented relative to their proportion of the total population. However, Hispanic students account for 10 percent of all students in the nation and for 5 to 10 percent of those in the four disability categories, indicating no disproportionate representation nationwide. According to Harry's analysis, Asian students are generally represented in special education at a rate lower than their proportion in the population. Nationwide, Asians account for 3 percent of the student body and 0-2 percent of those in the four disability categories on which OCR collects race/ethnicity data. OCR data suggest that white students are consistently placed in programs for students with learning disabilities at a rate higher than their proportion in the population (Harry, 1992).

NLTS data (in Harry, 1994) are consistent with OCR data in suggesting that African American youth are placed in programs for students with mental retardation and serious emotional disturbance at a rate higher than their proportion in the population. In addition, the NLTS data suggest that disproportionate representation of racial or ethnic minorities occurs not only in the disability categories that require professionals to make judgments about placements, such as mental retardation. Overrepresentation also occurs in categories in which professionals are supposed to be able to place students using objective criteria, such as deaf/blindness, visual impairments, orthopedic impairments, and other health impairments. According to Wagner (1995), this suggests that factors other than racial discrimination contribute to the disproportionate representation of particular groups.

As the OCR data in table 4.2 indicate, non-inner-city districts have higher percentages of African American and Hispanic students in some disability categories than inner-city districts. A higher percentage of African American students in non-inner-city districts (2.8 percent) are reported to have mental retardation, compared to inner-city districts (2.0 percent). Higher percentages of both African American and Hispanic students in non-inner-city areas are reported as having specific learning disabilities compared to students in inner-city districts. However, this disproportion does not hold across disabilities. Despite the fact that a large number of African American and Hispanic students attend inner-city schools and are reportedly overrepresented in special education, data from OCR, as shown in table 4.2, suggest that inner-city and non-inner-city districts enroll virtually the same percentage of students in special education.

Race and Disability Category	Inner-City		Non-Inner-City		Total
	Number	Percent	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
White, non-Hispanic Mental retardation Serious emotional    disturbance Specific learning    disability	58,772 40,409 241,678	1.3 .9 5.2	269,010 157,934 1,280,875	1.1 .7 5.4	327,782 198,343 1,522,553	1.1 .7 5.3
African American, non-Hispanic Mental retardation Serious emotional    disturbance Specific learning    disability	65,535 35,433 176,107	2.0 1.1 5.5	103,947 34,645 222,730	2.8 .9 6.1	169,482 70,078 398,837	2.5 1.0 5.8
Hispanic Mental retardation Serious emotional    disturbance Specific learning    disability	20,339 12,362 124,042	.8 .5 5.0	20,278 8,043 138,289	.8 .3 5.5	40,617 20,405 262,331	.8 .3 5.3
Totala/ Mental retardation Serious emotional    disturbance Specific learning    disability	147,820 89,342 554,045	1.4 .8 5.1	403,451 205,314 1,684,257	1.3 .7 5.4	551,271 294,656 2,238,302	1.3 .7 5.3
All Students with Disabilitiesb/	1,121,532	10.3	3,335,661	10.6	4,457,193	10.5

a/ Also includes Asian and American Indian students (not shown).

b/ Consists of all students with an IEP.

SOURCE: The 1992 Office for Civil Rights Elementary and Secondary School Survey and the 1992 Common Core of Data Public School Universe File.

Wagner (1995) suggests that poverty, and not race or ethnicity, is the important factor influencing the disproportionate representation of minority groups in special education. Using NLTS data, Wagner compared the distribution of white, African American, and Hispanic secondary school-age students with that of the general population within each of three income groups. Table 4.3 shows that after accounting for differences in income, the disproportionate representation of African American students decreases considerably. According to the analysis, the disproportionate representation of African Americans in special education is a function of relatively low income and the disabilities associated with poverty. Only in the lowest income category is the difference in African American representation between students in special education and the general population (44.4 percent and 37.4 percent, respectively) statistically significant. When income is accounted for, disproportionate representation remains in three disability categories--speech impairments, visual impairments, and mental retardation.

                                                                Adjusted                                              General     Population of Income Category and        Students with     Student     Students with Ethnic Distribution        Disabilitiesa/   Populationb/  Disabilitiesc/
===================        ============    ===========   =============   Lowest Income Category
Percentage who were:   African American            39.6             37.4         44.4   Hispanic                    10.9             16.9          --   White                       47.0             58.6         54.4   Middle Income Category  Percentage who were:   African American            21.5             20.5         23.7   Hispanic                     9.4             13.8          --   White                       66.8             75.5         73.7    Highest Income Category
Percentage who were:   African American            10.4              9.2         10.7   Hispanic                     2.7              6.8          --   White                       83.5             87.5         86.4    

b/ Data are from the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1990) Money Income of Households, Families and Persons in the United States, 1988 and 1989. Current Population Reports, Consumer Incomes, Series P-60, No. 172. Data are for families with one or more related children between the ages of 6 and 17.

c/ Because individuals in the Census category "Hispanic" may be of any race, NLTS ethnic distributions are adjusted in this column to apportion the Hispanic population in each income category among the other categories in proportions equal to their representation in the population.

SOURCE: Wagner, Mary (1995). The Contributions of Poverty and Ethnic Background to the Participation of Secondary School Students in Special Education. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

This section described the population of students with disabilities in inner cities. Data suggest that inner-city districts serve similar percentages of students in special education as suburban and rural districts, but inner-city districts enroll a larger percentage of students living in poverty, a larger percentage of students with limited English proficiency, and a larger percentage of students from racial/ethnic minority groups. Data from OCR and NLTS confirm that minority students are disproportionately represented in special education, but the data suggest that over-representation may, in part, be a function of higher rates of poverty among minorities.

² The Office of Civil Rights(OCR) Elementary and Secondary School Survey collects data on the characteristics of students enrolled in public schools across the country primarily to monitor compliance with civil rights laws. From one portion of the survey, data from public school districts and the schools within those districts are used to generate State and national estimates of the number of students identified as having speech impairments, visual impairments, specific learning disabilities, mental retardation, serious emotional disturbance, hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, deaf-blindness, and multiple disabilities. Other student characteristics, such as ethnicity, gender, and English language proficiency are also included in the file. The 1992 survey included approximately 4,700 districts representing 43,000 schools (NCES, 1994b).

³ The Common Core of Data(CCD) survey collects information on elementary and secondary public education in the U.S. Data are collected annually from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. Outlying Areas. A total of 57 State-level educational agencies report information on staff and students for approximately 85,000 public schools and about 15,400 local educational agencies. Information about revenues and expenditures is also collected at the State level (NCES, 1994a).

⁴ The NLTS, which began in 1987, was a 5-year national longitudinal study of secondary special education students to determine how they fare in terms of education, employment, and independent living. NLTS involved a nationally representative sample of more than 8,000 secondary-age youth with disabilities (NCES, 1994a). NLTS used codes for urban, suburban, and rural districts generated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Consequently, the schools classified as urban in this data set may include urban fringe areas as well as inner cities, which makes them different from inner-city schools in OCR/CCD.

⁵ Data from OCR on race/ethnicity by disability are only collected for the following disability categories: mental retardation, learning disability, speech impairments, and serious emotional disturbance.
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[Chapter 4]

[Factors Associated with the Provision of Special Education to Students with Disabilities in Inner Cities]