Kathy,
What research shows that minority and disabled students are most likely to be hit by an adult in school? Also, what adults do the hitting? The premise of your complaint to the DOE and your comment here centers around that research. I would really like to read the findings and how the study was conducted.
Coppermine

Hey Coppermine,
Here's the news story as CBS news at this web site. I believe this is NOT an experiment, thus "how the study" was conducted might be a moot point. However, the data is reported to the state and likely to have the group the child belonged to such as race, gender, and ethnicity. I saw the data from Georgia that another parent had to file a FOI to get the info. It shows kids having an IEP and 504 along with total population. I hope this info is helpful.
Kathy
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/0...
African American students are more than twice as likely to be paddled. The disparity persists even in places with large black populations, the study found. Similarly, Native Americans were more than twice as likely to be paddled, the study found.

The study also found:

In states where paddling is most common, black girls were paddled more than twice as often as white girls.

Boys are three times as likely to be paddled as girls.

Special education kids were more likely to be paddled.

I believe this was an opportunity for Human Rights Group simply obtained data, analyzed it, and then interpreted their findings. Therefore, they did not need to gather the data, but could use data already collected by agencies who have access to such information. If we consider that cause and affect are rarely ever determined, but go with correlation. Thus, a quasi researcher might question if the school systems actually "self-reported" ALL instances of corporal punishment.
In this age of accountability it is a good thing we have "watch dog groups" who are willing to challenge the status quo in our society and communities.