PI: Elizabeth Stringer Keefe

Co-PI: Andrew F. Miller, Boston College

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The Inclusive Catholic Education Research (ICER) Project explores the preparedness of teachers and leaders to serve disabled students in K-12 Catholic education settings in Massachusetts. Since 1978, Catholic schools have made a visible turn to inclusivity and the education of disabled students in Catholic education settings (National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1978).  Across the US, approximately seven percent of students enrolled in Catholic schools have documented disabilities, as compared to 11 percent of students with disabilities in public settings (Boyle & Bernards, 2017).  While there is consistent enrollment of students with disabilities in Catholic education settings, Catholic schools are not required to comply with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which mandates the provision of special services to students with disabilities.  This is because Catholic schools do not receive federal funding, but rather, a “proportionate share” of local school districts’ federal funds for students who are enrolled in private schools by their parents (USDOE, 2019). 

In 2019, the United States Department of Education (USDOE) found that Massachusetts state officials and public school districts had violated federal law by denying the ‘proportionate share’ of special education funding under IDEA to students with disabilities who were being educated in religious settings -- this ruling was the impetus for the study.  Across Massachusetts, approximately seven percent of the state’s private school students have documented disabilities (Vaznis, 2019);  the denial of “proportionate share” federal funds means that students with disabilities in Catholic K-12 settings may have been denied supports that could have improved their educational trajectory and outcomes. In addition, we need to know whether educators and leaders feel prepared to support disabled students in Catholic settings in order to ensure the best possible educational outcomes.