My child is struggling 
Now that my child has 
Over Identification
With less than five percent of the school-age population currently receiving special education services in the LD category, there appears to be little evidence supporting the persistent claim that students are over-identified as LD. In fact, Congressional testimony by Dr. G. Reid Lyon, former chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health, indicated that approximately 6 percent of school-age children will experience learning difficulty, particularly in the area of reading, even when provided with early and intensive interventions. It is these children who should be served by special education.
Another frequent issue raised by both media and policymakers is that of overrepresentation of minority populations in special education. The data are relatively new since states were not required to collect special education data by race/ethnicity until the IDEA was reauthorized in 1997. While there is reason for concern about over-identification of minorities, the disability categories and race/ethnic groups of greatest concern are that of emotional disturbance and mental retardation as it relates to black and Hispanic students.
As with the overall rate of identification of students as LD, the disproportionality of race/ethnic groups varies among the states. The determination of disproportionality is generally made by comparing the race/ethnic distribution of students served within each disability category of IDEA with the distribution of those groups within the resident population for a state or school district. Additional information on disproportionality by race and disability is available at http://nccrest.eddata.net/maps/index.php.
Cost of Special Education
The cost of delivering special education services to students with disabilities is a frequent topic for the media and policymakers alike. Recent studies have helped identify the true costs associated with IDEA services, most notably the Special Education Expenditures Project (SEEP) . http://csef.air.org/
These expenditures include spending on all regular and special education services used to educate students with LD. The majority of students with LD spend more than 80 percent of their instructional time in general education.
Outcomes and Expectations
The difficulties faced by people with LD can often be best communicated by providing data on the outcomes being experienced by those served by special education. While there is frequent reporting on the remarkable achievements of a few notables with LD, in general, people with LD are experiencing poor outcomes in important areas such as high school graduation, postsecondary education and average earnings. Overall, learning disabilities compromise abilities and aspirations and can lead to problems such as drug abuse and poor mental health.
Graduation
Graduation from high school with a standard diploma for students with LD covered under IDEA in 2001-2002 was 57 percent. This was up from just under 54 percent in the previous year.
Dropout
The dropout rate for students with LD was 35 percent in the school year 2001-2002, versus almost 39 percent in the previous year. Dropout rates vary greatly by racial/ethnic group for both general and special education population.
Postsecondary Education
Among high school graduates who enrolled in postsecondary education, 28 percent of those with LD enrolled in four-year institutions compared to 62 percent of those without a disability. (Source: National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988)
Parental Expectations
Based on a 2001 survey, 59 percent of parents expect their student with LD to graduate from high school with a standard diploma. Regarding postsecondary education, 14 percent of parents expect their students with LD to graduate from a 2-year college, while just 10 percent expect graduation from a 4-year college. A majority of parents (64 percent) reported that they expect their students with LD definitely or probably won;t graduate from a 4-year college. (Source: National Longitudinal Transition Study 2)
Cost of Procedural Safeguards in Special Education
There are many reports about the high cost of litigation in special education. Like other assertions regarding special education, this is difficult to substantiate. Recent studies of due process hearings, such as those conducted by the Project Forum at the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, indicate that the number of due process hearings held in the U.S. is declining. A lot of this can be attributed to the requirement that all states make mediation and other dispute resolution strategies available to schools and parents in conflict.
A report by the SEEP (Report #4) indicated that total expenditures on special education mediation, due process and litigation during the 1999-2000 school year was approximately $146.5 million for all K-12 special education students in public schools (6.2 million students). This breaks down to an expenditure of approximately $24 per special education pupil and accounts for only .3 percent of total special education expenditures.
Report #5 of the SEEP indicates that per pupil expenditures for students in special education range from a low of $10,558 for students with learning disabilities to a high of $20,095 for students with multiple disabilities. The average per pupil expenditure for a typical regular education student who receives no special education services is $6,556. Therefore, the average expenditure for students with LD is 1.6 times the expenditure for a regular education student.
