Special Education Referrals and Disciplinary Actions for Latino Students in the United States

Abstract

Abstract Latino students are the largest growing minority group in the U.S. school system. However, there are critical barriers that impeded the development of sustained academic success for this particular population. Latino students have been found to be over-represented in the delivery of disciplinary actions and in the identification of disabilities in special education populations. While the two concerns may appear to be separate, they are interdependent as a history of disciplinary actions can lead to an unjustified referral to special education for evaluation. The coupling of high disciplinary actions and biased referrals to special education has led to the over-representation of Latino students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD). In this article, we discuss the contextual background of Latino students in today’s schools, the excessive use of disciplinary actions for them, and their disproportionate representation in special education populations. Additionally, we present two recommended actions as a pair of first steps to address the improper referral pipeline.