Citizen Portal

Students call for disaggregated disability data on California School Dashboard

California State Senate and California State Assembly Education Committees (joint hearing) · January 20, 2026
Article hero
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Student presenters urged the Legislature to require the California Department of Education to add disaggregated indicators for 13 IDEA disability categories to the state dashboard so educators and policymakers can target supports; lawmakers praised transparency but warned about dashboard usability and readability.

Students argued that current disability reporting is too coarse to guide targeted interventions and proposed a new dashboard subset that disaggregates outcomes by the 13 disability categories recognized under IDEA.

Zitian Rieques and peers said disaggregated test scores, graduation rates and postsecondary outcomes would let districts identify gaps and allocate supports more effectively. "We want to incorporate an additional subset under the California dashboard using the California Department of Education information that recognizes 13 categories of disabilities already addressed under the Individuals with Disabilities Act," a presenter said.

Legislators endorsed transparency but cautioned that a more complex dashboard could reduce usability for parents and the public; they suggested web‑based expandable displays to preserve accessibility while giving researchers and policymakers richer data. No vote or statutory action was taken in the hearing.