Special Education Racial Inequity and the Educational Debt

Abstract

I provide a broad frame for understanding racial disproportionality in special education by showing how the inequity is a byproduct of the educational debt. I used a single case study design that relied upon qualitative semi-structured interviews, document analyses, and school board meeting transcripts gathered from a mid-sized urban school district in the northeastern United States to show how the inequity morphed under the conditions of the pandemic and revealed its relationship to the educational debt. I end with recommendations for policy that consider the linkages between present day educational deficits, educational opportunity gaps, and the educational debt.