Black children are categorized with emotional disturbances in Montgomery County schools in ratios nearly double their representation in the total student body, according to a county special education report released Tuesday.

Roughly 42 percent of county public students in “emotional disturbance” programs in 2006 were black, despite blacks making up only 22 percent of the 2006 student population as a whole. White students receive the emotional disturbance label in nearly equal proportions to their representation in the student body, while Asian and Hispanic students are underrepresented in emotional disturbance categories.