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We used a situated approach to examine the aftermath of citations for racial disparities in special education and discipline. The study was conducted in one suburban school district and examined staff’s interpretations and responses to multiple disproportionality citations. We found that historical, spatial, and sociocultural contexts mediated stakeholders’ interpretations and reactions to citations and the consequences of their responses. Our findings demonstrate how a history of race relations in the district and the community as well as spatial opportunity structures shaped disability and discipline racial disparities; the consequences of a damaged imagery for multiply marginalized youth and their families in explanations of disproportionality citations; and the shortcomings of the district’s symbolic and predominately color-evasive responses as a consequence of ambiguous federal and state policy mandates.

In this article, we document patterns of local education agency (LEA) disproportionality citations within one U.S. state spanning an 8-year time period immediately following the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to understand the following: (a) how patterns of disproportionality citations manifest over time in suburban locales, and (b) how often LEAs experience and subsequently are able to successfully address a citation for racial inequity in special education outcomes. We descriptively investigated sequence patterns across suburban locales within one state—New York State (NYS), which serves as a representative case for our analysis. We focus on suburban locales because prior research has documented that a school district’s location (e.g., suburban) relates to the time frame within which a school district was able to address a disproportionality citation. In addition, locale-specific characteristics such as segregation in schools and communities and sociodemographic conditions influence the occurrence of racial disproportionality. Our primary questions driving the descriptive inquiry were as follows: How does variation in sequence patterns for IDEA disproportionality citations manifest within and between suburban locales in NYS? What are the policy implications of these patterns? We conclude with specific recommendations for improving IDEA racial equity policy.

Given the prevalence of childhood trauma in rural Montana, this project is intended to help mitigate stressors that may contribute to poor behavioral and mental health in high school-aged children, which may be exacerbated by the collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. The immediate goal was to measure physical and mental health outcomes in adolescents resulting from a remotely delivered trauma-informed yoga intervention designed to foster positive youth development. Our study builds on the successes from an initial feasibility pilot study one year prior in order to evaluate a more robust intervention comparing experimental and control group outcomes. Students at a small, rural high school in Montana volunteered to participate in a 6-week, twice-weekly trauma-informed yoga intervention in their physical education class. Validated survey measures, including the PHQ-A, GAD-7, and ACE-Q instruments, were utilized to measure mental health outcomes pre- vs. post-intervention. Salivary cortisol levels were also measured pre-, mid-, and post-intervention. Statistically significant declines in cortisol levels and improvements in sleep duration were noted when comparing experimental vs. control groups. Noteworthy declines in depression and anxiety levels were also seen when comparing the treatment to control groups. Descriptive differences between the control and experimental groups illustrate the mental health benefits of reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms in rural adolescents resulting from a remotely delivered trauma-informed yoga intervention. Our study holds the potential for a long-term public health impact in reducing adolescent rates of anxiety and depression while mitigating trauma in geographically isolated settings. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04664855.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ([IDEA] 2004; IDEA Amendments 1997) is a civil rights–based law designed to protect the rights of students with disabilities in U.S. schools. However, decades after the initial passage of IDEA, racial inequity in special education classifications, placements, and suspensions are evident. In this article, we focus on understanding how racial discipline disparities in special education outcomes relate to IDEA remedies designed to address problem behaviors. We qualitatively examine how educators interpret and respond to citations for racial discipline disproportionality via IDEA at both the district and the school level in a suburban locale. We find that educators interpret the inequity in ways that neutralize the racialized implications of the citation, which in turn affects how they respond to the citation. These interpretations contribute to symbolic and race-evasive IDEA compliance responses. The resulting bureaucratic and organizational structures associated with IDEA implementation become a mechanism through which the visibility of race and racialization processes are erased and muted through acts of policy compliance. Thus, the logic of compliance surrounding IDEA administration serves as a reproductive social force that sustains practices that do not disrupt locally occurring racialized inequities.

School finance reform has recently centered on providing schools with more equitable access to resources to reduce opportunity gaps for students. Although special education is often a prominent part of larger equity conversations, special education funding is commonly excluded from school funding reform initiatives. Given the costly nature of special education programs, it is imperative that scholars and policy makers understand the effects of funding changes on outcomes for these students. In this study, we examined the effect of California’s Local Control Funding Formula, in addition to school context and student compositional characteristics, to identify changes in special education students’ achievement rates. Using a combination of publicly available data sources and local district data, we assessed differences in academic outcomes (i.e., achievement scores) between elementary students with and without disabilities in both high- and low-poverty schools, given increases in spending for special education programs.

Rural students account for almost 20% of the US K-12 students, but rural context varies from state to state. This study uses a statewide longitudinal sample (N = 3,119) to analyze college enrollment and STEM major choice patterns of Montana’s public high school students in the academic years of 2013-2017. The binary logistic regressions showed that Montanan students are more likely to enroll into a 4-year institution than a 2-year institution. Also, students enrolled at a 4-year institution are more likely to consider STEM majors than students at a 2-year institution. Although high school GPA and ACT STEM scores are strong predictors for both college enrollment and STEM major choice, findings for race/ethnicity, gender, and free or reduced-price lunch status varied across the two outcomes. Specifically, race/ethnicity contributes to variation in college enrollment, but not STEM major choice. Similarly, free or reduced-price lunch status in high school is predictive of college enrollment, but not for STEM major choice. Although there was no difference in college enrollment type for gender, male students are more likely to select a STEM major, and this trend occurs at a rate of three times higher at a 4-year institution versus a 2-year institution. Our findings provide additional nuances of rural students, contributing to the understanding of their college enrollment and STEM major choices in the context of Montana - a large geographic, low populous state - which has received less attention than urban and high-density states.

This study examined stressors and barriers to using mental health services among first-generation immigrants in San Jose, California. Focus groups for 30 immigrants from Cambodia, Eastern Europe, Iran, Iraq, Africa, and Vietnam were audio-recorded, translated and transcribed. Two researchers coded the data and identified themes pertaining to mental health stressors and barriers. Six primary stressors were identified: economic, discrimination, acculturation due to language differences, enculturation, parenting differences, and finding suitable employment. Primary barriers included: stigma, lack of a perceived norm in country of origin for using mental health services, competing cultural practices, lack of information, language barriers, and cost. A conceptual model is presented that may be used to inform the design and implementation of mental health services for this population.

Objective To evaluate the challenges faced by Lyme disease patients in obtaining adequate healthcare. Methods A web-based survey conducted over nine months was analyzed for the study. The survey focused on medical status, access to healthcare, and burden of illness. For inclusion in the study, survey respondents had to reside in the United States, be more than 10 years old, and have clinically diagnosed Lyme disease with chronic symptoms and positive laboratory testing. Results Responses from 2424 patients were included in the study. Half of the respondents reported seeing at least seven physicians before the diagnosis of Lyme disease was made. Nearly half had Lyme disease for more than 10 years and traveled over 50 miles to obtain treatment. Most respondents experienced symptoms lasting six months or more despite receiving at least 21 days of antibiotic treatment. A quarter of respondents had been on public support or received disability benefits due to Lyme disease symptoms, and over half had visited an emergency room at least once as a result of these symptoms. Conclusions Lyme disease patients frequently endure extensive delays in obtaining an initial diagnosis, have poor access to healthcare and suffer a severe burden of illness.