What Is Democracy to the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act? Confronting Racism in IDEA

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

As a field, special education often frames policy as an object-ethos to be “ingested,” upheld, not interrogated. Embedded in this assumption is a belief such policies protect, help, and drive neutral-positive justice, which glosses over the complex irregularity of how policy—practices hinge dependent upon population, particularly individuals’ students with disabilities, BIPOC, LGBTQIA, lower socioeconomic statuses who experience ableism, racism, and other forms of marginalization within and across special/education systems. This session aims to curate scholarship and discourses interrogating special education policies’ status quo and functioning connected to challenge and broaden our understanding of the relationship between democracy and IDEA: Should the connection be there? What is needed to revolutionize or repair models and policy-to-practice decisions?

Sub Unit

• SIG-Special and Inclusive Education Research

Chair

• Sarah M. Salinas, Minnesota State University - Mankato

Papers

• Boundary Crossing for Praxis: Exploring Transformative Equity Solutions That Move Beyond Compliance - Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides, Hunter College - CUNY

• A Critical Policy Analysis of Local Policy Implementation to Reduce Racial Disparities in Special Education - Dosun Ko, Santa Clara University; Dian Mawene, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Sumin Lim, Hunter College; Yehyang Lee, Syracuse University; Jahyun Yoo, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Black and Brown Disability Advocacy on a Higher Ed Campus: Subverted Truths - Maureen Negrelli Coomer, Colorado College; Mercedes Adell Cannon, Indiana University - Indianapolis; Germaine Koziarski, Arizona State University

Discussant

• Lauren I. Katzman, Arizona State University