The Effects of Educational Policy and Local Context on Special Education Students' Experiences of School Removal and Transition

• In Event: School Discipline “Matters”: Exploring the Education and Policy Contexts

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to understand how educational policies enacted within specific local contexts shape students’ everyday schooling experiences. Specifically, it examines how intersections between the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the local school discipline policy, and the special education context impacted school removals and transitions among of nine special education students in an urban school district in the Mid-Atlantic.
While educational policies profoundly shape student’ experiences, policy analyses are often not extended to their “on the ground” implications. Existing analyses of this kind show that the interactional effects of a variety of policies and contextual factors can lead to unintended outcomes. Examples include the further marginalization of many low-income students of color through school accountability mandates and zero tolerance policies (Akom, 2001; Losen & Orfield, 2002). Building knowledge about how and why educational policies play out in particular ways can help us to better understand their potential consequences, which is especially important in the case of those students most at risk for school failure.
The present paper draws from qualitative, ethnographic data and analyses, as well as document analyses. Data included in-depth interviews with the nine 11th and 12th-graders, observation field notes and audio recordings of in-school settings and informal discussions. Also analyzed were IDEA 2004, existing analyses of IDEA, local school district discipline policy, and documents pertaining to discipline, special education, and the implementation of IDEA within the district. Bringing together the documents and qualitative data, analyses examined the role(s) of IDEA, discipline policy, and contextual factors in participants’ reported experiences of school removals and transitions. More specifically, it examined the significance of policy in relationship to the local special education and school discipline contexts for the nine participants.
Study findings show general differences in how school removals and transitions played out for the participants, often depending on whether they were voluntary or non-voluntary. However, each instance of removal, within and across participants, was different from others, due to a variety of factors, which are examined. In all cases, attorneys and the provision of alternative placements as mandated by IDEA were instrumental, particularly as related to the local context. Findings reveal the profound impact of educational policies on students having academic and disciplinary difficulties. This paper argues that particular provisions of IDEA can be essential for the success of these students and argues that protections against deleterious disciplinary actions, similar to those provided by IDEA, should be extended to all students.
The effects of educational policies are determined by how they are put into practice and how they play out in the lives of institutions and individuals, within their local contexts (Datnow, Hubbard, & Mehan, 2002; Elmore, 2004). This study shows that analyzing individual experience can provide valuable insights into the significance of policy, on the ground. This paper argues that future research should examine such relationships more closely, particularly as it pertains to policies, which can both empower and make vulnerable some of the most marginalized students in U.S. public schools.

Author

• Tara Marie Brown, University of Maryland - College Park