Chapter 3: A Pattern of Practice: Federal Law and the Carceral State of Special Education for Black Girls

Despite the overturning of the “separate-but-equal” doctrines within the United States’ public school systems, many Black students are still denied equal and equitable schooling experiences, treatment, and educational opportunities (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Lipman, 2004). The narratives of Black students labeled as needing special education services are often set in the context of underfunded special education programming and patterns of inappropriate identification. Black students (including Black girls) are easily assigned labels in the more subjective diagnostic disabilities categories such as, learning disabled, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and behaviorally or emotionally disturbed and are hastily placed in special education classrooms (Ford, 2012; Rebell & Wolff, 2008; Shealey & Lue, 2006), limiting their educational access and potential. These students are then pushed out of schools and are often subjected to high rates of suspensions and expulsions (Sbika et al., 2011). This school-to prison pipeline (Kim et al., 2010), which negatively influences the experiences, treatment, and opportunities of Black students, is furthered by ineffective educational policies at the federal, state, and district level.