by Elaine Mulligan
A charter school is a public school and as such, is responsible for serving students with disabilities in keeping with state law.
Q: What is a Charter School?
A: Charter schools are public elementary and secondary schools, just as traditional neighborhood schools are. Charter schools have existed in the United States for about 20 years, beginning with state legislation in Minnesota in 1991. In the 2010-2011 school year, there were 5,275 authorized charter schools nationwide.
Each state has the authority to include charter schools in its state law as a way of offering students a public education. Most states have done just that and have written state charter laws that guide how charter schools operate.
Q: Do Charter Schools Have to Meet the Same Accountability Standards as Traditional Schools?
A: State laws often grant charter schools some freedom from meeting certain state or local education regulations or policies. However, charter schools must follow all federal laws that apply to any other public school. Currently, this includes ensuring that charter school data are included when reporting to the federal government every year on student progress. Data are broken out by race, ethnicity, gender, grade, and disability status, as required by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001.
Public charter school data about students with disabilities are also included in the IDEA data reports submitted by State Education Agencies (SEAs) each year to the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education. These data include counts of children, educational environments, reasons for exiting special education, assessment participation and performance, personnel, dispute resolution, and discipline.
Q: Are Charter Schools Required to Provide Services to Students with Disabilities?
A: Yes. The responsibility to make a free appropriate public education (FAPE) available to all students with disabilities applies to ALL public schools under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Charter schools are public schools; therefore, they bear the same responsibility.
Who is actually responsible for ensuring that special education services are available to students with disabilities in a charter school? The answer depends on how the charter school is legally identified in the state.
If a charter school is considered to be an independent Local Education Agency (LEA) under its state’s law, that charter school bears the exact same legal requirements for providing special education services as any other LEA (or district).
If a charter school is considered part of an existing LEA, the LEA (or district) retains most or all of the responsibility for special education in the charter school. The charter school is considered a school within that LEA and is responsible for following LEA policy.
Q: How Are Charter Schools Funded?
A: Much like traditional public schools, charter schools are primarily funded by a combination of federal, state and sometimes local funding, based on the number of students they enroll or on total enrollment (census formula). The flow of funding to charter schools for special education varies based mainly on the LEA status of the charter school as follows:
1. If the charter school is an LEA, federal and state funding for students with disabilities enrolled in that school flow from the state to the school.
2. If the charter school is a school within a traditional LEA, the flow of funding varies greatly by state and may depend on the specific arrangement between the charter school and the district. The district retains responsibility for special education for the charter school’s students, but the way special education is provided can vary from all services being delivered by LEA staff in the charter school, to all services being arranged by the charter schools with the charter school being reimbursed by the LEA. In some states there are negotiated arrangements that result in a variety of practices related to funding of special education services while in other states, funding procedures are the same for all charter schools.
Q: Are Charter Schools Required to Allow Students with IEPs to Enroll?
A: According to IDEA, yes. As was said above, the responsibility to make FAPE available to all students with disabilities applies to ALL public schools under federal law. Charter schools are public schools; therefore, they bear the same responsibility.
However, if more students apply to the school than the charter can serve, the charter may use a random selection system to determine student enrollment. In this scenario, many charter schools use a lottery system.
Q: Are Certification Requirements for Teachers the Same for Charter Schools as for Other Public Schools?
A: Guidance from the U.S. Department of Education asserts that ALL students should be taught by a highly qualified teacher. However, state charter laws control local certification requirements. New Jersey requires that all charter school teachers be certified.
For more information on Charter Schools in New Jersey: http://www.nj.gov/education/chartsch/
Resources:
- Center for Education Reform’s Choice & Charter Schools
- National Association of Charter School Authorizers
- National Charter School Resource Center
- U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement’s Welcome to Charter Schools Program
- U.S. Department of Education’s Questions and Answers on NCLB and Charter Schools
This piece has been edited for length. The full story, along with references can be found here at ParentCenterHub.com.
Elaine Mulligan is a communication specialist the Cetner for Learning and Development. A special thanks to Eileen Ahearn of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) for her content expertise and advice.
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