Identification and assessment of students with disabilities

Area of Science:

• Special Education
• Educational Policy
• Disability Studies

Background:

• Special education eligibility and services are determined through school evaluations.
• Current classification systems lack uniformity across states, leading to inconsistent diagnoses and reclassifications.
• Many disabilities are identified later in childhood due to achievement or behavioral issues, not early medical diagnosis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the inconsistencies and problems within current special education classification and funding systems.
• To propose a revised funding model that addresses the limitations of the existing system.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing special education classification and funding practices.
• Analysis of factors contributing to the disproportionate representation of minority students.
• Development of a regression-based funding model incorporating multiple student and intervention variables.

Main Results:

• Special education classification is non-uniform, with identical student characteristics leading to different diagnoses across states.
• Mild disabilities present challenges in clear demarcation and can significantly impede academic and career progress.
• Current systems exhibit issues like stigma, low reliability, poor treatment correlation, and disproportionate minority representation.

Conclusions:

• The current special education classification and funding system is flawed, leading to inequities and inefficiencies.
• A revised funding system weighting number of deficits, degree of discrepancy, complexity, and intensity of intervention is proposed.
• The proposed model aims to provide a more equitable and accurate distribution of funds for special education services.