designating the services and accommodations to which students with learning disabilities
are entitled. Even though approximately 15 million youth and adults with learning
disabilities are affected by these policies, research has not adequately addressed how
students and their families interact with this web of policies and education systems.
Research is needed that will address how youth and families are able to negotiate the
special education system in order to gain resources which will help the students in the
education system or in the workplace. Instead of assuming all students and families as
interact with the school system and special education system in the same way, or to
assume that students with disability are a monolithic group, this research will examine
how students from different social classes negotiate these systems. Though the general
consensus is that legal and policy changes have made education more accessible for
students with disabilities, researchers have not explored how these policies may create an
extreme form of advantage and/or disadvantage for students depending on their
socioeconomic status. This research project will address how socioeconomic status
impacts the ways that students with learning disabilities and their families interact with
the school system and the outcomes that these interactions produce in order to improve
policy on special education and college level services and accommodations.