Significant Disproportionality
Under 34 CFR 300.647, each state education agency (SEA) is required to conduct an examination of racial and ethnic data of all seven federal racial and ethnic subgroups individually across 14 separate categories (98 unique categories for possible identification). These categories include:
Identification (seven separate categories)
- Identification as a child with a disability
- Identification in any of six specific disabilities:
- Functional Mental Disability (FMD)/Mild Mental Disability (MMD)
- Emotional Behavioral Disability (EBD)
- Other Health Impairment (OHI)
- Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
- Autism
- Speech or Language Impairment (SLI)
Placement (two separate categories)
- Placement in the regular class setting less than 40% of the educational day
- Placement in a separate school or residential facility
Removals of children with disabilities from their educational setting due to a disciplinary event (five separate categories)
- In-School removals totaling up to 10 cumulative days during the school year
- Out-of-School removals totaling up to 10 cumulative days during the school year
- In-School removals totaling more than 10 cumulative days during the school year
- Out-of-School removals totaling more than 10 cumulative days during the school year
- Total of all disciplinary removal events during the school year regardless of type
In Kentucky, a calculation for significant disproportionality determination is defined as:
Minimum cell size of 10. (Cell size refers to the number of students identified in the area examined).
Cell size represents the numerator in the risk ratio calculation.
Minimum N-size of 30. (N-size refers to the number of students who could have been identified in the area examined). N-size represents the denominator in the risk ratio calculation.
Risk Ratio Threshold >3.0. (The risk of the racial or ethnic group examined must be more than 3.0 times likely to be identified for a particular outcome than students in all other racial or ethnic subgroups).
- In order to be identified for significant disproportionality, this ratio must exceed the 3.0 threshold for the same category and same race/ethnicity for three-year consecutive years.
- Once a district is identified, the district may be excluded from identification if, over the three-year period, data collected shows reasonable progress reflected by a 0.05 decrease in the risk ratio for each of the last two years examined.
- If the Local Education Agency’s (LEA) race/ethnicity data being analyzed fails to meet the minimum cell size or N-size significant disproportionality cannot be calculated.
Alternate Risk Ratio: The alternate risk ratio is used when an LEA comparison data for either the cell size or N-size does not meet the minimum requirement. When using an alternate risk ratio, the LEA data for the race/ethnicity being examined is compared to state data for students, not of that race/ethnicity. If statewide data in the comparison group fails to meet either cell size or N-size significant disproportionality cannot be calculated.
Jarrod S. Slone
Office of Special Education and Early Learning
300 Sower Blvd., 4th Floor
Frankfort, KY 40601
(502) 564-4970 Ext. 4134