Special Education Services
Indicators 9 & 10: Disproportionality Tools & Resources
Under the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 2004), the U.S. Department of Education placed an increased emphasis on addressing the challenge of disproportionate representation of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in special education. A variety of causes, such as flawed assessment practices or inadequate instruction, may contribute to such disproportionality.
The federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) requires each state education agency (SEA) to determine if disproportionality based on race and ethnicity and resulting from inappropriate identification is occurring in the state and within local school districts. Further, if such disproportionality due to inappropriate identification is found, the SEA must notify the affected school districts and support them in carrying out improvement activities.
Each SEA must fulfill these requirements by implementing activities delineated in its IDEA Part B State Performance Plan (SPP) for Special Education. Indicators 9 and 10 of the SPP address the issue of disproportionality resulting from inappropriate identification for students aged 6 through 21.
Specifically, Indicator 9 addresses the overall disproportionate representation of racial and ethnic groups in special education, while Indicator 10 addresses the disproportionate representation of racial and ethnic groups in specific disability categories, i.e., Speech Language, Specific Learning Disability, Emotional Disability, Cognitive Disability, Autism and Other Health Impairment.
Below is more detailed information, along with tools and resources, on disproportionate representation in special education.
Illinois' Process for Determining and Addressing Disproportionality in Special Education 
This document provides complete information on disproportionality, including definitions, the method and criteria for determining disproportionate representation and the process to determine inappropriate identification. The document also contains information on requirements associated with significant disproportionality, which are separate from the SPP requirements.
Weighted and Alternate Risk Ratios
This document provides details of the weighted and alternate risk ratio methods that ISBE uses to calculate disproportionality.
Disproportionality Assessment Tools
- Self Assessment
In order for ISBE to determine if disproportionality is due to inappropriate identification, each district identified as having disproportionality is required to review and verify student data at the district and individual building levels and to complete a district self assessment using a template provided by ISBE (see link below). The purpose of this self assessment is to examine systemic factors that may impact the disproportionate identification of students in specific racial/ethnic groups.
- Status Report
Districts that continue to have disproportionality from one year to the next are required to continue to implement improvement activities delineated in the self-assessment completed in conjunction with their initial determination. They are also required to submit to ISBE an annual status report of those activities, including an update on any revisions in policies, practices and procedures that were determined necessary as a result of the district’s review of those areas during the self-assessment process.
