Giving Compass' Take:

• Matt Barnum reports that in Florida schools researchers found that black students were insufficiently or excessively labeled as having a disability based on the level of segregation. 

• How can funders work to ensure that all students receive the appropriate level of assistance? 

• Learn how socioeconomic inequalities land students of color in special education.  

In Florida schools where almost all students are black or Hispanic, 13% of black students were classified as having a disability. Yet in schools where the vast majority of students were white, nearly 22% of black students get classified that way.

It’s a striking divide, and one that researchers say probably shouldn’t exist. The more accurate number is likely somewhere in between.

The result: Lots of black students may be going without services they need, and other black students are getting services they don’t — and potentially being pulled out of regular classrooms in the process.

Those are the findings of a new study looking at special education in the country’s third-biggest state, one that adds important new context to an ongoing debate about race and special education.

Civil rights groups and the Obama administration have backed controversial federal rules designed to address over-representation of some groups in special education — regulations that are being enacted now despite the Trump administration’s continued effort to delay them.

Read the full article about how many black students are labeled as having a disability by Matt Barnum at Chalkbeat.