Unmeasured Confounding and Racial or Ethnic Disparities in Disability Identification

Students who are Black or Hispanic are now reported to be less likely to be identified as having disabilities than similarly situated students who are White. Although repeatedly replicated, this finding is often characterized as in error. I use a new statistical technique, the E-value, to quantify the likelihood that unmeasured confounding explains observed associations between race or ethnicity and disability identification. Results based on calculations across three population-based studies using extensive statistical controls suggest that unmeasured confounding is an unlikely explanation for the observed associations. Unmeasured confounding that would result in levels of overidentification consistent with federal law and regulation is especially unlikely.