Where Place Meets Policy: Spatial Histories, Policy Logics, and the Making of Disproportionality

Racial disproportionality in special education persists as a spatialized injustice shaped by local histories and geographies. Using a critical-spatial lens, we conducted an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study to examine how context mediates both disproportionality citations and district responses. Quantitative analyses of California data showed that large-city districts serving high proportions of Black, Indigenous, and Latine students were cited more frequently than similarly composed small-town and rural districts. Guided by those findings, our qualitative analysis of district policy documents revealed how racial composition shaped local understandings of root causes and solutions. We integrated qualitative and quantitative results in the culminating analysis. Findings underscored how sociohistorical and geographic forces structured policy implementation, pointing to the need for equity-driven reforms that center place-based organizational change.