ABSTRACT
Special education has been critical to ensuring educational access and participation among students with disabilities who historically were systematically excluded from public education (Sullivan & King-Thorius, 2010). Special education is a paradox, however, because although it ensures basic inclusion and access to services, it may also lead to stigmatization, segregation, and exposure to inadequate opportunities for learning (Donovan & Cross, 2002). Further, recent research suggests that, at least among children and youth with mild impairments, the average student with special needs would have been better off having not received services (Morgan, Frisco, Farkas, & Hibel, 2010; Sullivan & Field, 2013), echoing early studies showing students with disabilities performed better in general education classes than special education classes (Dunn, 1968). Given the mixed benefits and risks of special education, there has long been concern about differential identification, particularly the misdiagnosis of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students for special education. This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical and empirical literature on disproportionality in special education and describes how this educational problem can be addressed through systemic change.
