Why Disability Matters in the District of Columbia and Why We Can’t Wait

Bob Williams, @rrw1957.

The next elected Mayor and DC Council – like all that have preceded them – will face the following dilemmas and opportunities to improving the vitality and moral compass of our great city state.


Dilemmas:
Disability matters in DC for all the wrong reasons. As a community, we continue to experience some of the highest and most endemic rates of high school drop outs, joblessness and poverty among people with disabilities, especially among those of color, in the nation. The largest gap in full time employment earnings among those with and without disabilities exist here as does the second highest rate of poverty among disabled vets in the nation.


Opportunities:
These fundamental opportunity gaps and inequities have not appeared overnight and they will not go away on their own. The good news is that the next Mayor and Council will have tools and opportunities at their disposal with which to attack, chip out at these problems.

Fully two thirds of DC students with disabilities spend less than 2 days a week learning beside their peers without disabilities. DC had the worse rate of separate and thus, inherently unequal education in the country and it shows. Nearly 4 out of 10 our students with disabilities drop out of high school. The Mayor and Council could take aims closing these enormous gaps, including by investing in tutoring, mentoring, college readiness and career paths aimed at offering these kids a real chance at leading a better life and future.

Similarly, DC has the highest concentration of government agencies as well as federal contractors in the nation, all of which must comply with new and heighten requirements to recruit, hire, employ, and promote people with disabilities. Moreover, States and local governments like Montgomery County have adopted and applied similar standards to their employment practices as well as to businesses that contracts with them. The next Mayor can aggressively apply all of these strategies to begin to chip away at what is increasingly described as the disability poverty trap. Or, they can continue to ignore and write off these inequities as the inevitable consequence of having a disability and living in the Nation’s Capital. Which shall it be?


Question:
If elected, what are three specific actions are you committed to taking to begin to measurably reduce and reverse these enormous opportunity gaps in our city?


Sources:
Houtenville, Andrew J. (2013). 2013 Annual Compendium of Disability Statistics. Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire, Institute on Disability.


Excerpts from the Compendium:




Table 11.1: Special Education—Students Ages Six to 21 Served under IDEA, Part B, as a
Percentage of Population
In the fall of 2011, there were 67,789,851 students ages 6-21 in the United States. Of these students, 5,670,680 or 8.4 percent received special education services under IDEA, Part B. Idaho and Hawaii had the smallest percentage (6.3 percent), while New Jersey and the District of Columbia had the largest percentage (11.2 percent).


Table 11.4: Special Education—Educational Environment—Students Ages Six to 21 Served under IDEA, Part B, that Spent 40 Percent or More Time Inside Regular Class
Of the 5,670,680 youth ages 6-21 who received special education services under IDEA, Part B, in the fall of 2011, 4,581,991(or 80.8 percent) spend 40 percent or more of their time in the regular classroom. The District of Columbia had the smallest percentage (65.3 percent), while North Dakota had the largest percentage (92.5 percent).



Table 11.6: Special Education—Graduation Rate among Students Ages 14 to 21 Served under IDEA, Part B
Of the 396,997 students ages 14- 21 who exited IDEA, Part B, special education services in 2010-2011 by either graduating with a diploma, receiving a certificate of completion, dropping out, dying, or aging out of service, 63.8 percent graduated with a diploma. Utah had the smallest percentage (14.8 percent), while Minnesota had the largest percentage (87.9 percent).
DC 850 445 52.4


Table 11.9: Special Education—Change in Dropout Rate among Students Ages 14 to 21 Served under IDEA, Part B
From the school year beginning in fall 2010 to the school year beginning in fall 2011, the dropout rate among students ages 14-21 served under IDEA, Part B, decreased in the U.S. by 1.1 percentage points. The dropout rate increased the most in Utah (by 57.9 percentage points) and decreased the most in the Delaware (by 17.8 percentage points).
DC 29.5 38.9 9.4


Table 4.2: Poverty - Civilians without Disabilities Ages 18-64 Years Living in the Community for the U.S.
In 2012, of the 19,909,538 individuals with disabilities ages 18 to 64 years who were living in the community, 5,816,545 individuals lived in poverty—a poverty rate of 29.2 percent. In contrast, of the 173,240,240 individuals without disabilities ages 18 to 64 years living in the community, 23,491,472 individuals lived in poverty—a poverty rate of 13.6 percent. The poverty rate for people with disabilities was highest in the District of Columbia (38.4 percent) and lowest in Alaska (16.7 percent).


Table 4.3: Poverty Gap - Civilians Ages 18-64 Years Living in the Community for the U.S.
In 2012, the poverty rate of individuals with disabilities ages 18 to 64 years living in the community was 29.2 percent, while the poverty rate of individuals without disabilities ages 16 to 64 years living in the community was 13.6 percent—a poverty gap of 15.7 percentage points. The poverty gap was smallest in Alaska (7.9 percentage points) and greatest in the District of Columbia (23.5 percentage points).


Table 2.13: Full-Time, Year-Round Gap - Civilians Ages 18-64 Years Living in the Community for the U.S.
In 2012, the full-time, year-round employment rate for individuals with disabilities ages 18 to 64 years living in the community was 19.0 percent, while the full-time, year-round employment rate for individuals without disabilities ages 18 to 64 years living in the community was 50.0 percent—a full-time, year-round employment gap of 31.1 percentage points. The full-time, year-round employment gap was greatest in the District of Columbia (36.3 percentage points) and smallest in Alaska (25.4 percentage points).


Table 5.1: Median Earnings of Civilians 16 Years and Over in the Past 12 Months for the U.S.
In 2012, for the individuals with disabilities ages 16 years and over living in the community that had earnings from work, median earnings were $20,448. In contrast, among individuals without disabilities ages 16 years and over living in the community that had earnings from work, median earnings were $30,881, a gap of $10,433. This gap is smallest (meaning the earnings of people with disabilities are closest to the earnings of people without disabilities) in Nevada ($5,688) and largest (meaning the earnings of people with disabilities are furthest from the earnings of people without disabilities) in the District of Columbia ($19,762).