The National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools (NCSECS) released a report today, “Key Trends in Special Education in Charter Schools: A Secondary Analysis of the Civil Rights Data Collection,” which examines 2013-2014 data on enrollment and placements of children with disabilities in the nation’s charter schools. Let’s preface this post with a nod to those who claim that some charters produce better student outcomes because they don’t accept their “fair share” of kids eligible for special education. Sometimes this is true, although the reasons are complex and easily misconstrued. After all, federal and state law empowers parents as decision-makers in placement; requires that special needs children be placed in the “least restrictive environment,” typically their local district; and case managers often steer parents towards placements within traditional schools. A section at the end of the report lists the “various challenges autonomous charter schools face,” such as “small size, limited resources, and access to existing special education structures and supports.”
Complexities aside, the NCSECS analysis belies reductive and reactive charter-flogging and shows that these alternative schools are continuing to create and provide more access for children with disabilities. (For a post-2014 example, read about my young friend Jared.) Here are a few highlights from the report, which is easily read in its entirety.
In some states (including New Jersey), charters operate as their own districts, also referred to as LEA’s, or “local education agencies.” But in other states, charters are part of larger LEA’s. Charters that comprise their own LEA’s enroll 11.5 percent of children with disabilities. In charters that are part of other LEA’s, 9.74 percent of their enrollment is children with disabilities.
However, in four states (Wyoming, Delaware, Missouri, and New Jersey) traditional public schools enroll at least five percent more students with disabilities than charter schools.
Charter schools more often place children with disabilities in inclusive environments, i.e., classrooms with typical peers. From the report: “84.27% of students with disabilities in charter schools were educated in the general education classroom for 80% or more of the day compared to 68.09% of students with disabilities in traditional public schools.” These less restrictive placements may be facilitated by the higher number of charter students with less severe disabilities, i.e., specific learning disabilities.
As the charter sector grows to serve more of our nation’s students, with and without disabilities, there will be (and should be) “pressure to address and resolve potential barriers, ensure equal access, and provide quality, and ideally, innovative, supports for diverse learners.” The U.S. Education Department, state departments of education, and charter school authorizers “must strive to develop and sustain accountability systems that honor the autonomy that creates opportunity for innovation while simultaneously maintaining high expectations for charter schools related to equity.”
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