A Critical Examination of Special Education Policy Using a Multi-Layered Systemic Approach for Policy Analysis

Understanding how system-level educational inequities manifest across contexts and over time is critical for informing research, policy, and practice. This paper advances a theoretically grounded, interdisciplinary conceptual framework—the Multilayered Systemic Approach for Policy Analysis (MSAPA)—for research on systemic inequities related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), including its racial disproportionality accountability mechanisms. We define the framework’s interdisciplinary theoretical roots, describe its conceptual utility, and apply it to the long-standing issue of racial disproportionality in special education. We provide empirical examples to substantiate the necessity and importance of the framework. Finally, we offer strategies for integrating findings through a mixed methods framework and disseminating results to enhance equity in policy and practice.