State Performance Plan Indicator 9: Disproportionate Representation

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Methodology for Identifying Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) with Disproportionate
Representation of Students with Disabilities by Race or Ethnicity

Purpose
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires state education agencies to review local educational agency (LEA) data annually to determine if disproportionate representation of students with disabilities by race or ethnicity is the result of inappropriate identification. State educational agencies must report their findings in Indicator 9 in the State Performance Plan (SPP)/Annual Performance Report (APR), 20 U.S.C 1416(a)(3)(C).
Procedures
All LEAs are subject to the annual analysis for Indicator 9; however, an LEA must meet all of the following conditions in order to be included in the analysis:

LEAs must have a total student population of 100 students or more
LEAs must have at least 40 students, ages 6-21, receiving special education services (as a whole) and the special education population cannot exceed 40% of the total population
LEAs must have at least 30 students of a race or ethnicity population, that comprises at least 10% of the total student population

Given that positive rate differences might result in LEAs being a fraction of a student over the limit, an additional safeguard exists that requires that LEAs must be at least one student (percentage-wise) over the established threshold to be identified as having disproportionate representation.

Risk Difference
Risk difference compares the sizes of two risks by subtracting the risk for a comparison group from the risk for a specific racial/ethnic group. A risk difference of 0.00 indicates no difference between the risks. A positive risk difference indicates that the risk for the racial/ethnic group is greater than the risk for the comparison group.

In order to identify LEAs with a disproportionate representation of students with disabilities by race or ethnicity, a threshold must be determined based on the distribution analysis of the risk difference data for all eligible districts.

For an LEA to be considered disproportionate in representation of students with disabilities by race or ethnicity, a district would need to be above the positive threshold. Based on data from 2011-2012, a distribution analysis yielded a threshold of 11.95 at the 99 percentile. LEAs that exceed the 11.95 risk difference threshold are considered for reporting purposes to have disproportionate representation of students with disabilities by race or ethnicity.