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

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.

Mechanisms for change: A theoretical pathway for a school-wide social–emotional learning initiative in an urban middle school

“…Data were obtained from official school records. These covariates were explored due to their documented impacts on academic achievement and discipline (e.g., Porter, 2000 ; Hubbard, 2005 ; La Salle et al, 2013 ; Moreno and Segura-Herrera, 2013 ; Santiago et al, 2014 ; Gašević et al, 2016 ; Morris and Perry, 2017 ; Daily et al, 2019 ).…”

A Phenomenological Study of the College Student Disciplinary Suspension and Reenrollment Experience

“…The central purpose of this study is to examine the educational nature of the college student disciplinary suspension and reenrollment experience, including why college student reenroll after serving a disciplinary suspension. Although many aspects of the student suspension experience have been researched, studied, and analyzed in the K-12 system (Anyon, Jenson, Altschul, Farrar, McQueen, Greer, & Simmons, 2014;Bekkerman & Gilpin, 2016;Moreno & Segura-Herrera, 2014;Robinett, 2012;Seider, Gilbert, Novick, & Gomez, 2013;Vanderhaar, Munoz, & Petrosko, 2015), college student disciplinary suspensions in higher education settings remain widely unexplored. According to Pavela (2008), most college disciplinary systems and processes aim to be educational.…”

Latinx adolescents' trust in adults: A precursor to psychological well‐being via mentoring relational quality and self‐esteem

“…Many Latinx families immigrated to the U.S. for safety and economic opportunity but face interpersonal discrimination and institutional oppression. For example, Latinx adolescents are often met with lower academic expectations from teachers and are disproportionately referred for special education and/or disciplinary measures (Benner & Graham, 2011; Moreno & Segura‐Herrera, 2014). Furthermore, Latinx youth are 65% more likely to be incarcerated than their White peers (The Sentencing Project, 2017), and qualitative research has highlighted the harmful criminalization of communal spaces as a result of over‐policing in predominantly Afro–Latinx neighborhoods (Solis et al, 2009).…”

“…special education and/or disciplinary measures (Benner & Graham, 2011;Moreno & Segura-Herrera, 2014).…”