Interrogating and Repairing IDEA’s Historical Conceptions of Equity

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

We examine equity visions underlying the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA] since 1975. IDEA remedies inequities experienced by learners with disabilities and advances repairs largely grounded in the medical model. We use interdisciplinary perspectives to examine IDEA’s equity conceptions through the windows of disability identification and accountability issues. The session includes two segments. First, we analyze issues embedded in the identification of students with learning disabilities noting the interlacing of biological and cultural considerations that could forge new inequities. These biocultural tensions illuminated the persistent entanglements of disability with race and socioeconomic status surrounding identification policies and practices. A second paper covers equity conceptions in IDEA’s accountability systems including procedural versus legal dimensions of compliance. We note contradictions embedded in IDEA’s enforcement, offering an expanded accountability framework that centers intersectionality, ethical responsibility, and community-driven solutions. We reconceptualize accountability beyond mere compliance and toward accountability as an act of collective care, historical reckoning, and future-making. In the second segment of the session, participants representing community, research, and policy perspectives discuss IDEA’s remedies and repairs surrounding identification and accountability and imagine visions for more equitable futures.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chairs

• Allison Turner Gunter, Winston-Salem State University

• Audrey M. Sorrells, Texas Christian University

Papers

• The Elusive Quest for Equity in LD Identification Beyond Technical Precision & Socio-demographic Constructions - Alfredo J. Artiles, Stanford University; Gabriela López, Stanford University; Daniela Gamboa Zapatel, Stanford University

• Reimagining IDEA (Accountability) for Repairing Intersectional Injustice Amid Political Uncertainty and Backlash - Aydin Bal, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Mildred Boveda, Pennsylvania State University; Dosun Ko, Santa Clara University; Margaret J. McLaughlin, University of Maryland; Audrey M. Sorrells, Texas Christian University

Discussants

• Endia J. Lindo, Texas Christian University

• Daniel Losen, National Center for Youth Law

• Lydia L Ocasio-Stoutenburg, Pennsylvania State University