If you are a
student with a disability in Texas, you are much more likely to be expelled
from school than your non-disabled classmates. For Black and Latino students
with disabilities, the expulsion rate is even higher. This is according to a
recent report by the public interest law firm Texas Appleseed.
According to the
report, students in special education represent 10 percent of the school
population in Texas, but they are 20 percent of those who are expelled from
school. The chance that a student will be expelled increases two to three times
for Black or Latino students with disabilities.
The report
indicates that disabled students in Texas are more often expelled for
“subjective” offenses. For instance, they are less likely than non-disabled
students to be expelled for offenses such as bringing a weapon to school for
which expulsion is a mandatory consequence.
Districts are
required to continue to provide services to students with disabilities, so
expelled students are often placed in juvenile justice alternative schools.
According to Appleseed legal director Deborah Fowler, “Being expelled from
school increases these students’ chances of advancing farther in the
school-to-prison pipeline.”
While the Texas
Appleseed study only reports on Texas, students with disabilities and students
of color have historically faced not only higher rates of expulsion and
suspension from schools but difficulty accessing education altogether.
Prior to 1975,
many students with disabilities were completely excluded from public schools.
In 1975, Congress enacted the law now known as IDEA (Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act.) This law expanding the rights of children with
disabilities was an outgrowth of the Civil Rights movement. IDEA is supposed to
guarantee a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive
environment for all students with disabilities.
The reality is
that inequality and discrimination in education persist. Students with disabilities
and students of color are all too often consigned to overcrowded and
under-funded schools. Racist and anti-disabled attitudes among school staff are
no less pervasive than in society at large. Student misbehavior is an everyday
occurrence in schools—however, students with disabilities and especially
students of color are being denied their right to an equal education under the
guise of “discipline.”
