The Maryland Education Department announced its competitive grant program earlier this year, aiming to address critical issues in student identification processes within the state’s school systems. Specifically, the program seeks to combat racial disproportionality and overidentification of students—particularly those from underserved communities—who are classified with intellectual disabilities and emotional disturbances.
In a statement regarding the grant recipients, State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury emphasized the importance of equity in education. “The challenge we face is not simply one of overidentification,” said Choudhury. “At its core, it’s about ensuring that every child in Maryland has access to a learning environment that recognizes their unique potential and provides them the right support.”
This initiative is funded through $3 million in federal COVID-19 emergency grants. The funds will help districts develop and scale tiered intervention strategies designed to address these systemic challenges. “These strategies coupled with the critical interrogation of explicit and implicit biases will drive the difficult but necessary change needed to ensure students are not disproportionately identified by race, sex, gender, home language, and income status,” the state’s statement added.
The Impact of Misidentification
The consequences of misidentifying students with intellectual and emotional disabilities can be profound. In a March letter to educators and stakeholders, Choudhury highlighted how these students often end up in restrictive, segregated school settings. “Students who are misidentified are vulnerable to a less rigorous curriculum and lower expectations in a segregated setting,” Choudhury stated. This underscores the urgency to address not only the systems that contribute to overidentification but also the implicit and explicit biases that perpetuate inequities in education.
Combating Racial Disproportionality: The Grant Recipients
Three Maryland school districts were selected as grant recipients, each with specific goals and plans to address overidentification and racial disparities in special education programs:
1. Calvert County Public Schools
Calvert County Public Schools aims to reduce by 50% the number of K-5 African American students identified for special education services. Additionally, the district is working to decrease the gap in suspension rates for African American students with disabilities. With its $934,665 grant, the district plans to overhaul its special education pre-referral process, provide professional development to address staff implicit biases, and close academic proficiency gaps for African American students.
2. Montgomery County Public Schools
Montgomery County Public Schools will use its $1 million award to tackle the disproportionate identification of emergent multilingual Hispanic/Latino students with intellectual disabilities. The district’s approach involves creating a culturally relevant guide for tiered supports, training educators to differentiate between language acquisition and potential educational disabilities, and implementing evidence-based interventions.
3. Prince George’s County Public Schools
Prince George’s County Public Schools will utilize its $1 million grant to reduce disparities in the identification of African American students labeled with emotional disturbances. The district will target 14 schools, training staff to implement advanced intervention strategies for high-need students. Additionally, the grant will fund parent training sessions to help families apply intervention techniques at home, creating a holistic approach to support.
A Path Toward Equity
These grants represent a significant step toward fostering educational equity and ensuring that all Maryland students receive appropriate support tailored to their needs. By addressing systemic biases and scaling effective interventions, the state is making strides in combating racial disproportionality in education.
As districts implement these programs, the hope is to create more inclusive environments where every student, regardless of background, can thrive. By continuing to confront implicit biases and reexamining processes, Maryland is setting a precedent for tackling long-standing inequities in special education.
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