| Title: |
Weighing Risks: How Families of Disabled Children Made School Choices during COVID-19 |
| Language: |
English |
| Authors: |
Rachel Elizabeth Fish (ORCID 0000-0002-5720-021X); Alexandra Freidus (ORCID 0000-0002-4452-3247); Erica O. Turner (ORCID 0000-0002-3875-5076) |
| Source: |
AERA Open. 2025 11(1). |
| Availability: |
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com |
| Peer Reviewed: |
Y |
| Page Count: |
18 |
| Publication Date: |
2025 |
| Document Type: |
Journal Articles; Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: |
Children; Students with Disabilities; School Choice; COVID-19; Pandemics; African American Students; Attitudes toward Disabilities; Racism; Socioeconomic Status; Social Bias; Special Education; Parent Attitudes; Minority Group Students |
| Geographic Terms: |
Wisconsin; New York (New York) |
| ISSN: |
2332-8584 |
| Abstract: |
In this paper we show how positionality shapes caregivers' decisions about children's schooling by expanding on research on Black families' educational decision making to examine the positions from which families of disabled and multiply marginalized children made educational choices. The families of disabled children in our sample made holistic ongoing risk assessments and weighed tradeoffs based on their positions during a period of time marked by multiple ongoing choice moments: the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We show that disability and ableism--intersecting with racism and socioeconomic inequality--increased the frequency, ongoing nature, and complexity of choice moments as well as the risks embedded in each educational option. This intersectional marginalization constrained the options available to families, forcing them to choose between school settings that caused different kinds of harm. Our findings extend beyond the pandemic by revealing how ableism and special education structures complicate and stratify school choice for families of disabled students. |
| Abstractor: |
As Provided |
| Entry Date: |
2026 |
| Accession Number: |
EJ1494819 |
| Database: |
ERIC |