In 2024, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported an estimated 7 million (11.4%) U.S. children aged 3–17 years have ever been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), according to a national survey of parents. While the debate on the causes of the rising cases of ADHD may go on forever, school systems and educators are grappling with the reality of these numbers and what it means for effectively teaching students in classrooms daily.
It doesn’t take much interrogation of the ADHD data for obvious disparities to surface and raise questions. For example, in their study, the CDC reported that boys (15%) were more likely to be diagnosed with the disorder than girls (8%). Furthermore, many of the children grappling with ADHD also experience co-occuring conditions such as anxiety, depression, behavior disorders, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), etc.
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/adhd/data/index.html
For many educators, navigating the needs of a multitude of culturally divergent students in addition to the demands of high stakes testing and other administrative obligations may leave them under prepared to meet the needs of the students when problematic behaviors manifest in their classrooms. One unintended consequence of this overwhelm is evident in the disparities that emerge in how children of color are over disciplined in classrooms when compared to their White counterparts.
Black and Latina boys being over disciplined
In a video experiment of over 1,339 teachers in 295 schools, the American Sociological Review found that, compared to White boys, Black and Latino boys experience both (1) individual-level teacher bias, where they are perceived as being more “blameworthy” and referred more readily for identical misbehavior, and (2) racialized organizational climates of heightened blaming, where students of all races/ethnicities are perceived as being more “blameworthy” for identical misbehavior in schools with large minority populations versus in predominantly White schools. In other words, teachers were more likely to write a discipline referral for Students of Color when they witnessed them commit the same offense as White students, but also, that they were more likely to blame students for behavioral issues when they worked in a school that had a large population of Students of Color.
Claire Sibonney expresses a similar sentiment in her article, Underdiagnosed and Undertreated, Young Black Males With ADHD Get Left Behind. According to Sibonney, educators over disciplining Black kids, specifically, leads to them receiving more criminal prosecution and less of the mental and medical support they may need to effectively manage their behavioral issues. This, in turn, fuels the school to prison pipeline, as professionals in education and law enforcement wrongly view the nefarious nature of Students of Color to be the blame for behavior issues, and not symptoms caused by a treatable disorder. This line of thought fuels the common saying “Black kids get cops, white kids get docs.” The unspoken, and harmful, cultural belief here being White students are misbehaving because something is wrong, while Students of Color are misbehaving because they are wrong.
In a study of 4297 children and parents surveyed over 3 waves (fifth, seventh, and 10th grades, The National Center for Biotechnology Information found that African American and Latino children had less odds of receiving a ADHD diagnosis, and even when they did they were less likely to receive medical treatment for the disorder. For example, among 10th grade children at the highest symptom level, 65% of white children were taking ADHD medication according to a parental report, compared with 36% of African-American children and 30% of Latino children.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27553219/
Parents/Guardians Must Be Advocates
Parents are the first line of defense when it comes to helping students of color get the diagnosis and help they need to navigate educational institutions and secure their future success. Many parents simply are not aware of all the factors at play nor the rights and protections that policies afford them and their children.
Parents, unlike educators, become the connectors from the medical professionals to educational organizations. For instance, when a parent enrolls their child in therapy, a child’s therapist may be able to identify recurring symptoms (typically 6 or more for inattention, and 6 or more for hyperactivity and impulsivity for more than 6 months) and make recommendations to a psychologist and/or psychiatrist for testing, diagnosis, and treatment for ADHD, this process requires resources and time that many parents may not have available. However, parents are uniquely positioned to see a child’s problematic patterns of behavior before any educator, and for longer than the course of a year.
After her son, Jaxson, received his ADHD diagnosis, Tish Johnson became the biggest advocate for her son at a local school district in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Although the state of Texas has recently moved students to a computer-based assessment model, Tish, a former elementary educator, quickly noticed her son’s math scores rapidly declining when he took computer-based assessments, despite seeing evidence of his content mastery at home daily. Understanding the symptoms of ADHD (i.e. trouble staying focused on tasks, being easily distracted, difficulty staying seated in the classroom, trouble playing or doing an activity quietly, etc), Tish became her son’s number one advocate. In a 504 meeting, a meeting between parents and school district personnel to create a plan for what accommodations and services are needed to ensure the student’s academic success, she requested that her son be administered paper-based assessments, a request that was a first of its kind in that district.
Without his mother’s informed advocacy, Jaxson may have become another little Black boy categorized as academically underachieving and trouble-making, and thus been underserved by the educators that encounter his genius daily. This is the tragic reality for many Black students, when their parents are not equipped with the resources or time needed to go to bat for their children.
When symptoms of ADHD start to surface, many parents, who may oftentimes not be mindful of their own mental health, may default to punitive disciplinary measures that are more culturally accepted than going down a path to diagnosis and treatment with children of color. The more parents can learn about the signs and symptoms and resources available to them, the better equipped they can be to engage in informed advocacy on their child’s behalf.
Culturally Engaging Educators
One of the other pieces to this puzzle is the need for educators to commit to creating classrooms that are culturally relevant to the students they serve. Decades worth of research has shown that Students of Color see more academic success and decreased behavioral referrals when their teachers create learning experiences and environments that are culturally responsive to students.
In the 2021 release of The FRESH Classroom: Why Culturally Relevant Education Can’t Wait!, the F.R.E.S.H. strategy is detailed as a blueprint for educators looking to increase student engagement by making lessons that are Fun, Relevant, Engaging, Standards-Based, and Higher Order for all students. This approach prepares teachers to become the bridge builders between what students need to learn (the curriculum) and what they already know (background knowledge and interests). By investing the time required to curate lessons that engage students more deeply, kids with attention deficits are more fully engaged and less likely to misbehave than when they are taught by teachers who are committed to more traditional, teacher-centered approaches to teaching and learning.
In a time where we are learning so much more about ADHD and its impact on students in schools, parents and educators have many opportunities to partner and ensure that each child receives what he or she may need to navigate and have successful schooling experience. Fortunately, we are learning more about what is required and where the disparities exist, so that more collaboration and partnerships may be created to propel students forward to having all the support they need as they navigate living with their differences and becoming the most productive citizens our communities need them to be.
