‘Special Ed’ and Special Knowledge: The Silent Causes of Unequal Disability Education

• In Event: 50221 - Section on Disability in Society Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3: Disability, Work, and Education

Abstract

Families with neurodivergent regularly navigate complex, multi-scalar legal and resource environments driven by policy regimes that have lagged behind popular and medical understandings of neurodivergence. This difficulty is compounded by resource scarcity and heterogenous program and service models. Drawing from survey and interview data with more than 100 parents and resource providers for neurodivergent children, we ask why have laws and resources aimed improving educational opportunities for neurodivergent students come up short and, in many instances, exacerbated educational inequality. The preliminary results of this study suggest that certain forms of legal and resource elasticity compound educational inequality based on sex, class, race, and immigration status. Drawing from Sandefur's (2015) distinction between formal and substantive knowledge, we find that differences in knowledge about the law and educational services contribute most to resource inequality between families with neurodivergent children early on. However, gaps in formal knowledge (knowledge of systems and actors) compounded inequality as resources are exhausted. By leveraging the perspectives of parents, educators, and resource providers, the results of this study have profound implications for how to best deliver and access resources so that neurodivergent students can thrive.

Authors

• Connor Strobel, University of Chicago

• Heather Smith-Cannoy, Arizona State University-West

• Charles Smith, University of California, Irvine