Enhancing Self-Determination of Culturally Diverse Students With Disabilities: Current Status and Future Directions

Abstract

American society is becoming increasingly multiethnic and multilingual (Rodriguez, 1990). Nearly 25% of the U.S. population is composed of individuals of racial/ethnic groups other than Caucasian (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). Texas now has joined Hawaii, New Mexico, and California as a majority-minority state, along with the District of Columbia (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). As a result, the U.S. school population also has become more diverse in recent years. The same is true with regard to special education students. According to the Twenty-Fifth Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; during the 2001-02 school year, 5,867,234 students aged 6 to 21 were served under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) in U.S. schools (U.S. Department of Education, 2005). Among them, 38.3% were racial and ethnic minorities, compared to 30.9% of minorities in the general population in the year 2000 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). American Indians/Alaskan Natives and African American students were overrepresented in special education (the percentage of students from a racial group served under IDEA was greater than the percentage of this group in the general population); Asian/Pacific Islanders and Caucasian students were underrepresented; and Hispanic students were represented at a similar rate as Hispanics were represented in the general population (U.S. Department of Education, 2005). The issue of minority overrepresentation in special education has drawn national attention for a number of years (e.g., Artiles & Trent, 1994; Zhang & Katsiyannis, 2002). Although efforts and progress have been made to reduce the overrepresentation issue, an increasing concern is the achievement of minority students with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities from minority groups continue to be at high risk for poor school performance, high unemployment, low wages, limited access to postsecondary education and training, and limited opportunities for living independently and participating fully in their communities (Simon, 2001). Transition outcomes of students aged 14 and older who are served under IDEA vary greatly across racial and ethnic groups, although some racial/ethnic differences revealed in the last decade have decreased (Wagner, Cadwallader, Garza, & Cameto, 2004). Findings from the National Longitudinal Study 2 indicate that both Caucasian and African American youth with disabilities have made significant improvements in school-completion rates; as a result, three-fourths the proportion of youth in both groups completed high school (Wagner