This article was written by Kara Arundel on October 12, 2023 and published by  K-12 Dive.

The Data Center for Addressing Significant Disproportionality has a five-year, $14.5 million contract to help states with collecting, reporting, analyzing and using data about racial disparities in special education. viavado via Getty Images 

Westat, a research and professional services company, will lead a new technical assistance center to address data quality for significant disproportionality in special education, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services announced Thursday.

The five-year contract to help states with collecting, reporting, analyzing and using data about racial disparities in special education totals $14.5 million. The center is called the Data Center for Addressing Significant Disproportionality.

While the field is encouraged by states working proactively with districts to identify inequalities and find root causes of racial over- and under-identification in special education, there’s more work to be done, said Glenna Wright-Gallo, assistant secretary of OSERS and a former state director of special education.

“There’s been a long-standing history of inequities around specific groups, and we want to make sure that we continue our efforts to improve, and that we continue to make progress around this,” Wright-Gallo said.

In a March notice proposing the technical assistance center, the Education Department pointed to a nearly 100% increase between the 2018-19 and 2020-21 school years in the number of districts identified as significantly disproportionate in special education.

Federal rules under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act require that districts measure racial disparities in special education annually in 14 categories — including a student’s disability identification, educational placement and discipline — for seven racial and ethnic groups. This means there are potentially 98 different calculations to determine if a district is or isn’t significantly disproportionate.

Districts identified as significantly disproportionate must set aside 15% of their federal IDEA Part B funds for programs that remedy this problem, including for interventions that support all students and students at risk of needing special education services.

In comments submitted to the Education Department in response to the proposed technical assistance center, a few state education agencies voiced concerns that the new center would overlap with assistance already provided by other OSEP-funded centers.