November 17, 2000

Minority Issues in Special Education

Research Conference

PURPOSE

On November 17, 2000 CRP hosted it's first conference on special education held at the Harvard Law School and coordinated by the Advisory Committee for the Conference on Minority Issues in Special Education.

Special education is intended to provide support and services that help students with disabilities reach their full potential. Historically, however, special education has been used as a vehicle for segregating minority children. Today, poor and minority children often suffer harm from misclassification, segregation, and grossly inadequate special education services. The denial of equal opportunity has caused devastating results in communities throughout the nation.

The Conference on Minority Issues in Special Education brought together high-quality research to explore the two following problems, and make constructive recommendations:

1. the over representation of minority students and economically disadvantaged students in substantially separate special education classrooms, and;
2. the under servicing of minority and economically disadvantaged youth with disabilities.

Recommendations included ideas for more effective evaluation and servicing of various sub-populations of students, specific strategies for educators to reduce levels of misclassification in the systems they serve, and legal/political guidance for attorneys and community activists. The conference provided a confluence of legal and non-legal strategies with research based policy recommendations.

The Advisory Committe for the Conference on Minority Issues in Special Education, which was reponsible for guiding much of the research and policy recommendations produced at the conference, was made up of esteemed members from Harvard University and the University of Miami:

Christopher Edley, Jr., Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Beth Harry, Professor, University of Miami
Thomas Hehir, Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Daniel J. Losen, Legal and Policy Advocacy Associate, The Civil Rights Project
Martha Minow, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Gary Orfield, Professor of Education and Social Policy, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Research

Papers presented at the conference highlighted problems with the misidentification and misplacement of minority students. The research also emphasized the need to address critical problems in general education that subject minority children to greater risk of special education labeling and evaluated the impact of advocacy and public policy in trying to make both special and general education more effective for minority students.

This research has since evolved into a book, Racial Inequity in Special Education, edited by Daniel J. Losen and Gary Orfield, with a foreword by Senator James Jeffords (Harvard Education Press).

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AGENDA: TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

November 17, 2000

I. Welcome and Introduction

Daniel J. Losen, The Civil Rights Project, Harvard University

II. Plenary Presentations: Redefining and Re-Examining Issues of Overrepresentation and Underservicing of Minorities

Juvenile Justice - Correlation with Special Education Under and Over Representation
David Osher, American Institutes for Research

Overrepresentation Demographics
Donald Oswald, Virginia Commonwealth University

New Information and Setting a New Research Agenda
Beth Harry, University of Miami

Funding Disparities
Thomas Parrish, American Institutes for Research

Analysis of Restrictiveness by Race and Ethnicity
Edward Garcia Fierros, Northern Arizona University

Moderators: Asa Hilliard, Georgia State University, Pedro Noguera, Harvard Graduate School of Education

III. Concurrent Panels on Education Reform: New Issues, New Solutions

Panel A: Testing, English Language Learners

Standards Reform and High Stakes
Jay Heubert, Teachers College, Columbia University

Latino Issues and Prop. 227
Alfredo Artiles, University of California, Los Angeles

Presentation on High Stakes and Implications for ELL Students
Martha Thurlow, University of Minnesota

Moderator: Martha Minow, Harvard Law School

Panel B: Government Reform

Large Scale Systemic Change - What it will take to get us there from here
Thomas M. Skrtic, University of Kansas

OSEP's Role in Enforcement and Policy Changes
Thomas Hehir, Harvard University

Moderator: Asa Hilliard

IV. Plenary Presentations: Enforcement and Legal Challenges/Remedies (Part I)

Review of Legal Action -Title VI and 504 Focus- New Challenges
Daniel J. Losen

Minority Overrepresentation Concerns in the Context of School Desegregation Guest Presentation
Kathleen Devine, United States Department of Justice

OCR Perspective
Timothy Blanchard, DOE's Office for Civil Rights, Co-facilitator of OCR "Minorities in Special Education" National Network

Moderator: Dennis Parker, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund Inc., Kathleen Boundy, Center for Law and Education

V. Plenary Presentations: Enforcement and Legal Challenges/Remedies (Part II)

OCR Intervention - Efficacy
Theresa Glennon, Temple University School of Law

Corey H. - Using Disability Law to Protect Minority Children - A Review of the Aftermath of Corey H.
Sharon Soltman, Designs for Change

Proactive Strategies for Reducing Overrepresentation
Deborah Voltz, University of Louisville

Commentator: Michele Cammers-Goodwin, Yale University

VI. Break Out Sessions with Moderated Discussion: Moving Forward

New Research and Direction
Moderated by Beth Harry, Gary Orfield and Alfredo Artiles

Legal Challenges
Moderated by Martha Minow, Dennis Parker, and Kathleen Boundy

Government Policy
Moderated by Judith E. Heumann, Assistant Secretary of Education, OSERS, United States Department of Education, Christopher Edley, Jr., Harvard Law School and Thomas Hehir

VII. Wrap Up and Next Steps

Final Comments: Asa Hilliard