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Racial disparities

By JohnL on Jun. 2, 2006.

The Education Department of the state of New Jersey (US) found that the Lakewood local education agency (LEA) discriminated against African-American and Hispanic-American students its preschool special education program, according to stories by Richard Quinn in the and Angela Delli Santi in Newsday. Unlike much of the discussion regarding discrimination in special education, where the issue is African-American and Hispanic-American children being mistakenly identified as having disabilities, this story is about those students not getting equal treatment.

Here is a snippet from Ms. Santi’s story:

In a 31-page report issued last week but publicized by the ACLU Wednesday, Education Department officials cited examples of students with similar disabilities, but different treatment plans. Besides giving preferential treatment to whites for out-of-district services, disabled white preschoolers also were more likely to be offered full-day, rather than half-day, special education classes, the report found.

Link to Ms. Santi’s story and a link to Mr. Quinn’s more extensive coverage.

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