TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying Racial and Socioeconomic Biases iNew Jersey Special Education Eligibility
AU - Papandrea, Megan Theresa
AU - Namazi, Mahchid
AU - Ghanim, Iyad
AU - Patten, Sarah
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - Purpose: This study aimed to determine if eligibility for special education anrelated services (SERS) in New Jersey (NJ) is biased based on a child’s racicultural background or socioeconomic status (SES). Method: A Qualtrics survey was administered to NJ child study team personnincluding speech-language pathologists, school psychologists, learning disabilities teacher-consultants, and school social workers. Participants were presented with four hypothetical case studies, which differed only in racial/culturabackground or SES. Participants were asked to make SERS eligibility recom-mendations about each case study. Results: An aligned rank transform analysis of variance test found a significaneffect of race on SERS eligibility decisions, F(2, 272) = 2.391, p = .09Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests further yielded that Black children had significantly higher levels of SERS ineligibility at the high-SES (z = −2.648, p = .008) and mSES (z = −2.660, p = .008) levels compared to White children. When compariSES levels within race using Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests, White low-SES children had significantly higher levels of ineligibility for SERS compared to White highSES children (z = −2.008, p = .045). These results suggest that Black childrfrom high/mid SES are treated comparably to White children from low SES; thesgroups are more likely to be found ineligible for SERS compared to peers. Conclusions: Both race and SES play a role in SERS eligibility decisions in NStudents who are Black and/or from low-SES households are at risk for facinsignificant biases in schools that influence their educational placements. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22185820.
AB - Purpose: This study aimed to determine if eligibility for special education anrelated services (SERS) in New Jersey (NJ) is biased based on a child’s racicultural background or socioeconomic status (SES). Method: A Qualtrics survey was administered to NJ child study team personnincluding speech-language pathologists, school psychologists, learning disabilities teacher-consultants, and school social workers. Participants were presented with four hypothetical case studies, which differed only in racial/culturabackground or SES. Participants were asked to make SERS eligibility recom-mendations about each case study. Results: An aligned rank transform analysis of variance test found a significaneffect of race on SERS eligibility decisions, F(2, 272) = 2.391, p = .09Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests further yielded that Black children had significantly higher levels of SERS ineligibility at the high-SES (z = −2.648, p = .008) and mSES (z = −2.660, p = .008) levels compared to White children. When compariSES levels within race using Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests, White low-SES children had significantly higher levels of ineligibility for SERS compared to White highSES children (z = −2.008, p = .045). These results suggest that Black childrfrom high/mid SES are treated comparably to White children from low SES; thesgroups are more likely to be found ineligible for SERS compared to peers. Conclusions: Both race and SES play a role in SERS eligibility decisions in NStudents who are Black and/or from low-SES households are at risk for facinsignificant biases in schools that influence their educational placements. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22185820.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85152150179&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1044/2022_LSHSS-22-00138
DO - 10.1044/2022_LSHSS-22-00138
M3 - Article
C2 - 36877992
AN - SCOPUS:85152150179
SN - 0161-1461
VL - 54
SP - 600
EP - 617
JO - Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
JF - Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
IS - 2
ER -