Newark School Saw Too Many Students Classified With Disabilities. They Asked Rutgers for Help.

By refining the evaluation process, Rutgers School of Health Professions and Newark educators are making sure special education services are reserved for those who truly need them

When educators in the Newark Public Schools experienced an unprecedented a surge in referrals for students with disabilities, New Jersey's largest school district turned to Rutgers School of Health Professions for answers.

Many of those being evaluated were bilingual or came from homes where English wasn't the primary language. In a district where more than a third of residents are born outside the United States, the trend raised concerns that children were being misidentified as having speech or language disabilities when actually they were still learning English.

"They asked, 'What do you think is going on here?'" Kristen Victorino, an associate professor of speech-language pathology who is working with the school district, recalled. "So many of these kids are bilingual or in some way culturally and linguistically diverse, and they just didn't feel like it's possible that they all have disabilities. They said, 'What can we be doing differently?'"

The question became are we seeing disabilities or are we seeing children who are still developing academic English?

Kristen Victorino

Associate Professor, Speech-language Pathology, Rutgers School of Health Professions

Through funding from Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health (REACH), Rutgers speech-language pathology faculty and Newark school specialists have been working together since 2023 to improve how students are evaluated for speech and language disorders. The initiative aims to ensure children from linguistically diverse backgrounds receive appropriate support without being incorrectly labeled with a disability.

Disproportionate representation of marginalized populations in special education has long been a concern in education research, said Victorino. In Newark, N.J., educators suspected that language differences might be influencing evaluations.

"The question became are we seeing disabilities or are we seeing children who are still developing academic English?" said Victorino, principal investigator for the REACH project.

Rutgers team members began with a needs assessment using anonymized records of students who were evaluated in the 2022-23 school year. Researchers reviewed information such as demographics, age at referral and details about how initial speech-language evaluations were conducted.

They also held focus groups with speech-language specialists, school psychologists, special educators and social workers to identify challenges in the evaluation process.

The research revealed barriers that affected accurate evaluation of bilingual students.

Because many standardized speech-language tests are designed for monolingual English speakers, students can appear to struggle because of an unfamiliarity with certain vocabulary or grammatical structures. The researchers found an overreliance on standardized tests for students who were English speakers but whose families spoke a different language at home.

Barriers included time constraints for evaluations, limited training in bilingual assessment tools and communication gaps among members of school evaluation teams.

To address those issues, the Rutgers team and the district developed a train-the-trainer program: Four speech-language specialists from different geographic areas of the district serve as peer leaders who receive training from Rutgers faculty on best practices for evaluating bilingual students. One of the main goals was to improve the process for identifying a child's home language exposure and use.

The specialists share what they learn with colleagues across the district and have taken on additional leadership roles. In November, Victorino and several members of the Newark schools special services team traveled to Washington, D.C., to present about the partnership at the annual convention of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association.

Professional development sessions for roughly 50 speech-language specialists also have been hosted in the district, focusing on topics such as gathering detailed language histories and selecting appropriate assessment tools for bilingual evaluations.

In addition, team members developed an online training module for contracted speech-language pathologists many of whom conduct evaluations for the district. The course includes instructional videos, quizzes and reporting templates designed to help clinicians incorporate bilingual considerations into their assessments.

Accurate evaluation is critical because a special education classification can shape a child's academic path, Victorino said.

Students with speech-language or other disabilities may be removed from the general education classroom to receive services or be placed in a restrictive learning environment. If a child is misidentified, those placements can limit access to the standard curriculum and reduce opportunities to interact with typically developing peers.

"Children who truly need services should absolutely receive them," Victorino said. "But we want to make sure we're not labeling students as having disabilities when what they really need is time and support to develop academic English."

Children who truly need services should absolutely receive them. But we want to make sure we're not labeling students as having disabilities when what they really need is time and support to develop academic English.

Kristen Victorino

As the REACH project enters its final phase, the Rutgers team is creating a system to evaluate the program's effectiveness by reviewing future student evaluations and comparing them with earlier records. Researchers want to see whether clinicians are documenting language backgrounds more thoroughly, using different testing approaches and making different eligibility decisions.

They also will examine whether the percentage of bilingual students identified for speech-language services changes over time.

"This collaboration is a great example of how our students can thrive when the systems around them honor their culture, their language, and their lived experience," said Hasani K. Council, president of the Newark Board of Education. "I commend all who are helping build a model that other districts can learn from."

The collaboration between Rutgers and the Newark schools emerged from an existing relationship: Graduate students from the speech-language pathology program complete clinical placements in Newark schools, while faculty members have long worked with school clinicians through professional organizations.

That connection made it easier for educators to raise concerns.

"This really started with the district saying, 'We're noticing something, and we want to do better,'" Victorino said. "It's been a true partnership."