Pushing Out Black Students With Disabilities Under COVID-19

By Sikivu Hutchinson

Over the past two turbulent weeks, empty public schools and barren playgrounds have become stark symbols of how COVID-19 has exacerbated structural inequality. Massive layoffs, food insecurity, and lethal gaps in sick leave, healthcare, childcare provision, housing, and transportation have always been a way of life for people of color, but the pandemic has further exposed this Rubicon as a neoliberal nightmare—the spectral chickens of Reaganomics come to roost.  The recent wave of district-wide school closures highlights their importance as some of the few remaining public “sheltering” spaces where vulnerable children can receive wraparound social welfare services. The shutdowns not only impact classroom instruction, but the mental health care provided by scores of psychiatric social workers, nurses, healthy start coordinators, speech therapists, and other support staff who do their work on the precipice of budget cuts and Orwellian government bureaucracy. For this reason, the COVID breakdown has already proven to be disastrous for children with disabilities. These youth are criminally underserved when it comes to quality classroom instruction in real time. Although they are confronted with a huge technology gap in the COVID age, the gap in instructional time and support services remains a primary issue because special needs students are even more prone to being isolated and pushed out when school schedules are disrupted.

Nationwide, approximately 67% of students with disabilities graduate from high school, versus 84% of students without disabilities. Due to deeply ingrained racist cultural expectations, poverty, and “lower” high stakes test scores, African American students are more likely to be identified as having learning disabilities. However, they typically do not receive the wraparound services that they need to support their learning and social-emotional development (there is recent data, contested by researchers at the Center for Civil Rights Remedies, that suggests that white students are actually more likely to be assigned to special education, while reaping the most benefit from coordinated support, resources, and therapy). Couple this with higher rates of policing and discipline on K-12 campuses, and Black students are at ground zero when it comes to the nexus of disability, criminalization, and school segregation. According to the 2018 “Disabling Punishment” report, “on average, students with disabilities lose over 56 days of instruction for every 100 students with disabilities enrolled” due to discipline. The majority of suspensions are “for minor misbehaviors”, with African American students being the most heavily penalized. Nevada, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee and Missouri were the worst offenders. Under the corrupt leadership of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the Department of Education has challenged Obama administration-era guidelines protecting students with disabilities and students of color from disproportionately harsh discipline.  

In its egregious response to the pandemic, the DOE issued guidelines that relieve schools of providing in- person educational assistance to students with disabilities if there are no in-person instructional services being offered to the general student population. This directive has been criticized by the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, which represents special education attorneys.  The directive further disadvantages disabled students and their families because they are now solely responsible for providing the critical support they’d relied on from schools. Many of my students—from foster care, undocumented, homeless, LGBTQIA+, and special needs backgrounds—do regular check-ins with counselors and specialists to ensure their wellbeing as well facilitate their academic progress. Without this support, they might languish. As one special education instructor noted in the L.A. Times, “There’s stress about them losing skills…a lot of our students really thrive with a high level of structure and routine, especially our students on the autism spectrum.”

These concerns have been echoed by providers I’ve spoken to in South L.A.  high schools, who point to a lack of clear coordination for students with IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) by the LAUSD. In my work as a resource provider and mentor at LAUSD schools, the relationships I’ve forged with restorative justice coordinators, Healthy Start providers, counselors, and psychiatric social workers have been invaluable. These dedicated caregivers are a lifeline for African American students (across the ability and needs spectrum), especially when it comes to bridging academics, social-emotional needs, and mental health.

At the end of the day, COVID has further underscored how the LAUSD’s diversion of state funding to school police over counselors and mental health practitioners harms African American students and other students of color (According to UCLA’s 2018 “Policing Our Students” report, Black students represented 25% of students arrested by LAUSD school police, despite comprising only 9% of the district). In a District where these practitioners often fight year in and year out at the school board to save their jobs, the next few months will strain fragile therapeutic networks to the brink. Ultimately, pressure must be kept on school districts nationwide to ensure that students are provided with speech pathology tele-therapy, daily assistance with IEPs through video conferencing, unrestricted access to culturally responsive distance learning platforms designed for disabled students, and mental health support services for parents and caregivers forced to navigate this new terrain while juggling work, childcare, and economic challenges. Creating schools based on a culture of justice and caregiving, rather than pushout, is one of the best remedies for a pandemic that has the lives of children of color hanging in the balance.  

LAUSD School Board Member Contact Info

george.mckenna@lausd.net, monica.garcia@lausd.net, scott.schmerelson@lausd.net, nick.melvoin@lausd.net, kelly.gonez@lausd.net, richard.vladovic@lausd.net, superintendent@lausd.net

LAUSD Superintendent

Austin Beutner
Phone: 213.241.7000
Fax: 213.241.8442
Email: superintendent@lausd.net