they have the skills and knowledge necessary to
enable them—
‘‘(i) to meet developmental goals and,
to the maximum extent possible, those
challenging expectations that have been es-
tablished for all children; and
‘‘(ii) to be prepared to lead produc-
tive, independent, adult lives, to the maxi-
mum extent possible;
‘‘(F) providing incentives for whole-school
approaches and early intervention to reduce the
need to label children as disabled in order to
address their learning needs; and
‘‘(G) focusing resources on teaching and
learning while reducing paperwork and require-
ments that do not assist in improving edu-
cational results.
‘‘(6) While States, local educational agencies,
and educational service agencies are responsible for
providing an education for all children with disabil-
ities, it is in the national interest that the Federal
Government have a role in assisting State and local
efforts to educate children with disabilities in order
to improve results for such children and to ensure
equal protection of the law.
‘‘(7)(A) The Federal Government must be re-
sponsive to the growing needs of an increasingly
more diverse society. A more equitable allocation of
resources is essential for the Federal Government to
meet its responsibility to provide an equal edu-
cational opportunity for all individuals.
‘‘(B) America’s racial profile is rapidly chang-
ing. Between 1980 and 1990, the rate of increase in
the population for white Americans was 6 percent,
while the rate of increase for racial and ethnic mi-
norities was much higher: 53 percent for Hispanics,
13.2 percent for African-Americans, and 107.8 per-
cent for Asians.
‘‘(C) By the year 2000, this Nation will have
275,000,000 people, nearly one of every three of
whom will be either African-American, Hispanic,
Asian-American, or American Indian.
‘‘(D) Taken together as a group, minority chil-
dren are comprising an ever larger percentage of
public school students. Large city school populations
are overwhelmingly minority, for example, for fall
1993, the figure for Miami was 84 percent; Chicago,
89 percent; Philadelphia, 78 percent; Baltimore, 84
percent; Houston, 88 percent; and Los Angeles, 88
percent.
‘‘(E) Recruitment efforts within special edu-
cation at the level of preservice, continuing edu-
cation, and practice must focus on bringing larger
numbers of minorities into the profession in order to
provide appropriate practitioner knowledge, role
models, and sufficient manpower to address the
clearly changing demography of special education.
‘‘(F) The limited English proficient population
is the fastest growing in our Nation, and the growth
is occurring in many parts of our Nation. In the Na-
tion’s 2 largest school districts, limited English stu-
dents make up almost half of all students initially
entering school at the kindergarten level. Studies
have documented apparent discrepancies in the levels
of referral and placement of limited English pro-
ficient children in special education. The Depart-
ment of Education has found that services provided
to limited English proficient students often do not
respond primarily to the pupil’s academic needs.
These trends pose special challenges for special edu-
cation in the referral, assessment, and services for
our Nation’s students from non-English language
backgrounds.
‘‘(8)(A) Greater efforts are needed to prevent
the intensification of problems connected with
mislabeling and high dropout rates among minority
children with disabilities.
‘‘(B) More minority children continue to be
served in special education than would be expected
from the percentage of minority students in the gen-
eral school population.
‘‘(C) Poor African-American children are 3.5
times more likely to be identified by their teacher as
mentally retarded than their white counterpart.
‘‘(D) Although African-Americans represent 12
percent of elementary and secondary enrollments,
they constitute 28 percent of total enrollments in
special education.
‘‘(E) The drop out rate is 68 percent higher for
minorities than for whites.
‘‘(F) More than 50 percent of minority students
in large cities drop out of school.
‘‘(9)(A) The opportunity for full participation
in awards for grants and contracts; boards of orga-
nizations receiving funds under this Act; and peer
review panels; and training of professionals in the
area of special education by minority individuals, or-
ganizations, and historically black colleges and uni-
versities is essential if we are to obtain greater suc-
cess in the education of minority children with dis-
abilities.
‘‘(B) In 1989, of the 661,000 college and uni-
versity professors, 4.6 percent were African-Amer-
ican and 3.1 percent were Hispanic. Of the
3,600,000 teachers, prekindergarten through high
school, 9.4 percent were African-American and 3.9
percent were Hispanic.
‘‘(C) Students from minority groups comprise
more than 50 percent of K–12 public school enroll-
ment in seven States yet minority enrollment in
teacher training programs is less than 15 percent in
all but six States.
‘‘(D) As the number of African-American and
Hispanic students in special education increases, the
number of minority teachers and related service per-
sonnel produced in our colleges and universities con-
tinues to decrease.
‘‘(E) Ten years ago, 12.5 percent of the United
States teaching force in public elementary and sec-
ondary schools were members of a minority group.
Minorities comprised 21.3 percent of the national
population at that time and were clearly underrep-
resented then among employed teachers. Today, the
elementary and secondary teaching force is 3 to 5
percent minority, while one-third of the students in
public schools are minority children.
‘‘(F) As recently as 1991, historically black col-
leges and universities enrolled 44 percent of the Af-
rican-American teacher trainees in the Nation. How-
ever, in 1993, historically black colleges and univer-
sities received only 4 percent of the discretionary
funds for special education and related services per-
sonnel training under this Act.
‘‘(G) While African-American students con-
stitute 28 percent of total enrollment in special edu-
cation, only 11.2 percent of individuals enrolled in
preservice training programs for special education
are African-American.
‘‘(H) In 1986–87, of the degrees conferred in
education at the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D levels, only
6, 8, and 8 percent, respectively, were awarded to
African-American or Hispanic students.
‘‘(10) Minorities and underserved persons are
socially disadvantaged because of the lack of oppor-
tunities in training and educational programs,
undergirded by the practices in the private sector