The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) section 618(d) requires states to collect and examine

data to determine if significant disproportionality based on race and ethnicity is occurring in the state and in the
local educational agencies (LEAs) of the state with respect to:

 identification of children as children with disabilities, including the identification of children as children
with disabilities in accordance with a particular impairment;
 placement in particular educational settings of such children; and/or
 incidence, duration, and type of disciplinary actions, including suspensions and expulsions.

If a district is identified, the state must:

 provide for the review and, if appropriate, revision of policies, practices, and procedures within the LEA
to ensure compliance with the requirements of IDEA.
 require the LEA to publicly report on the revision of policies, practices, and procedures consistent with
the requirements of FERPA and IDEA.
 require the LEA to set aside 15 percent of its IDEA, Part B (sections 611 and 619) funds to provide
comprehensive coordinated early intervening services (CEIS) to address factors contributing to the
significant disproportionality.

In December 16, 2016, the Equity in IDEA regulation required states to define a standard methodology by
which it would determine significant disproportionality following specific guidelines. In response, the department
convened an advisory group to review state level data and make recommendations for the methodology used.
This group included representation from district leadership and stakeholder partners. The department shared
staggering statistics, showing that African American students with disabilities in Tennessee are three times
more likely to be disciplined and seven times more likely to receive out of school suspensions for more than ten
days, than all other student groups. The advisory group came to a consensus, agreeing that this data was
troubling and necessitated action at the state and district levels.

As such, the group recommended that the calculation used to determine significant disproportionality be set at
a threshold of 2.0, meaning that districts would be identified if a student in any racial/ethnic subgroup was more
than two times as likely to receive disciplinary action than other student groups. This calculation led to 25
districts being identified during the 2018-29 school year and 26 districts for the 2019-20 school year.

Most surrounding states have established similar thresholds, ranging from a 2.0 – 2.5 multiplier. Although
Tennessee’s advisory group – not the department - recommended a threshold at the lower end of the regional
standard, the difference in the number of districts identified with significant disproportionality would be
minimally impacted if the higher threshold was used. In other words, the level of disproportionality was large
enough where a multiplier between 2.0 and 3.0 would have largely produced the same district list.

The department is committed to supporting districts in improving policies, practices, and procedures that lead
to significant disproportionality. We recognize that access to a high quality education is dependent upon
discipline practices that are culturally fair and unbiased. While our current statistics are staggering, we have
seen an increased awareness of the practices that lead to these numbers and some encouraging progress in
districts that have begun to address them. Over the next two years, the department will be expanding
statewide supports and resources to specifically address this issue in some of our districts.

Special Populations 710 James Robertson Pkwy • 11th floor Andrew Johnson Tower • Nashville, TN 37243
Tel: 615-253-2112 • tn.gov/agency