Identifying Racial and Socioeconomic Biases in New Jersey Special Education Eligibility

Abstract

Purpose:This study aimed to determine if eligibility for special education and related services (SERS) in New Jersey (NJ) is biased based on a child's racial/cultural background or socioeconomic status (SES).Method:A Qualtrics survey was administered to NJ child study team personnel including 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/cultural background or SES. Participants were asked to make SERS eligibility recommendations about each case study.Results:An aligned rank transform analysis of variance test found a significant effect of race on SERS eligibility decisions,F(2, 272) = 2.391,p= .093. Wilcoxon 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 mid-SES (z= −2.660,p= .008) levels compared to White children. When comparing SES levels within race using Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests, White low-SES children had significantly higher levels of ineligibility for SERS compared to White high-SES children (z= −2.008,p= .045). These results suggest that Black children from high/mid SES are treated comparably to White children from low SES; these groups 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 NJ. Students who are Black and/or from low-SES households are at risk for facing significant biases in schools that influence their educational placements.Supplemental Material:https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22185820