Data from a large racially representative sample of school children show that the trend toward placing minority students into special education classes in disproportionate numbers has been complicated by the introduction of the learning-disability (LD) category. While the proportion of blacks in classes for the mentally retarded has decreased with the recent emphasis on protection in evaluation, the increased proportion of blacks in LD classes has been so great that the result has been an increasingly disproportionate number of blacks in special education classes overall. This is in spite of national efforts to the contrary.
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