correlation between special education and poverty? ?

Samara Siewers: There is a huge body of research from many reputable agencies that correlates low socioeconomic status with a variety of disabilities, including learning disabilities and mental retardation. I don't have any statistics off the top of my head but I would imagine that a brief search of the internet or a visit to some sites like ldonline.org will give you the specifics. HOwever to just make a blanket statement correlating the two is to really oversimplify the issues. One has to consider what definitions and criteria the schools are using in order to determine eligibility, the existence of possible ethnic bias (African-American boys are overwhelmingly represented in special ed classrooms across the nation), bias written into the assessments themselves (since they were written by rich, educated, predominately white males). Anyway it is a very complicated issue and you should have no problem locating reputable information. Good luck...Show more