Are Charter Schools Serving Special Ed Students?
Charter schools are public schools, subject to the requirements of IDEA. But there’s a drumbeat of criticism out there to the effect that charters are trying to evade their responsibility to serve kids with disabilities. Some are, and they deserve to be nailed for it; but most charters do their damndest in this department, despite all sorts of obstacles. And it’s nearly impossible to have a coherent dialogue on this subject because aggregate numbers don’t tell much about what’s really going on in the schools -- the actual decisions being made about how best to serve kids. (Let’s note here that the latest available federal data, from the 2005 Schools and Staffing Survey, shows a pretty small gap nonetheless: 11% special education students in charters vs. 13% in non-charters.) The UFT (NYC’s teacher union) played the numbers game in a recently-released report; but Marcus Winters of the Manhattan Institute penned an astute and data-rich short course in response. It’s one of the best distillations of this complex topic that I’ve read.
And for a really creative response to the challenges charters face in this area, check out the latest news about a new special-ed co-op sponsored by the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools (and yes, full disclosure, helped along by the Alliance.)
Why not just set up a charter school specifically for special-ed kids? Most companies specialize on one type of "product". It shouldn't be any surprise that schools might be more efficiently run if they specialize as well. -Tarsha
One of the things that makes these stats misleading is the wide use of more advanced special education techniques in charters. We are a response to intervention school, so we prevent many students from slipping behind sufficiently to need an IEP. The stat we should really be looking at is what % of kids does a school have in the bottom quartile of performance. If you can move kids out of that quartile with or without an IEP, you are doing the right thing.
I think the issue is that a lot of people are still 'new' to charter schools and are under the impression that charters do not accept students with disabilities (that is the preferred term, by the way. It's always 'people first language.'). Many do not believe that their kids' needs will be served. This is where schools and charter associations need to step-up their PR and awareness campaigns.
I'm surprised the reported percentage of students in Special Ed is lower in charter schools. My experience in my area is that parents of identified students seek out charters -- talking mostly about "mild" disabilities (SLD, MID, OHI) rather than more severe disabilities.
I'm interested to see what others have to say about services in charter schools.
Look into parental surveys on their levels of satisfaction. Those are the most important numbers. Parents will tell you that for the most part they are receiving better services from their charter schools than from traditional schools.
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