The Office of Special Education Programs (“OSEP”) recommended “urgent policy overhauls” to school districts across the country regarding their implementation of the IDEA to resolve discipline disparities. In reviewing data from the Education Department’s Civil Rights Data Collection, OSEP noted that school districts are continuing to treat students with disabilities with higher rates of aversive practices, including exclusionary (suspension and expulsion) discipline. The disparities continue to place students with disabilities – especially black students – at risk for lower achievement and lower graduation rates.
August 2022
