“Back to school” is a perfect time to have your children tested for learning disabilities. The benefits can seriously outweigh the risks, leading to proper diagnosis and treatment and creating room for your student to receive the support they need at school (like extra time for tests). Another benefit to minority students is that being properly diagnosed with a learning disability might prevent disciplinary actions at school. Here’s an excerpt from an article we found in the North Dallas Gazette that shines a light on the disproportionate amount of discipline black children with undiagnosed learning disabilities receive, and there’s a link to the full article following.
Do you suspect your child might have a learning disability? If you’re in the greater Cleveland area, we hope you’ll contact us about having your child evaluated, and if you aren’t we hope you’ll talk to your child’s school guidance counselor about evaluation.
According to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, Black students are expelled and suspended three times more often than White students. And a new study published in the journal Sociology of Education found that school districts with large Black populations were less likely to consider offering counseling services compared to predominantly White school districts.
School districts in which a large portion of the students were Black would usually report incidents to law enforcement officers—not the case in majority White school districts. The study, entitled “The Social Structure of Criminalized and Medicalized School Data” examined how “district level racial/ethnic and socioeconomic compositions” affect the method of discipline implemented on students. The study was conducted by David Ramey, an assistant professor of sociology and justice at Penn State University. Ramey examined data from 60,000 schools in more than 6,000 school districts, and concluded that that the increased incarceration rates in minority communities results in a criminalized view of students when they misbehave.
According to the study, unlike White parents, the families of Black children are less likely to blame their behavior on medical or psychological causes.