If your child’s public school is unable to provide for his or her special needs, then that school generally has to pay to have your child attend a private, or charter, school that can adequately provide for the child’s needs. Unfortunately, many charter schools are basically “dropping the ball” when it comes to helping students with special needs.
In Florida, a study called the “State Impact Florida / Miami Herald investigation” took at look at how charter schools in that state are failing to serve students who have special needs, or disabilities.
Legally, charter schools are required to give equal access to students who have special needs. However, 86% of them didn’t have even one student who was classified as having severe disabilities. This is compared with more than half of public school districts in Florida, who do.
According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, this is happening in California, Louisiana, New York, and Texas, too. A quick scan through google shows that it is also happening in other states.
In Florida, Pivot Charter School denied enrollment to a seventeen year old student who has cerebral palsy. The school said that they don’t have anyone who can take him to the bathroom. His family offered to pay the school so the seventeen year old could have physical and occupational therapy there. The school said no.
In Miami-Dade County in Florida, Miami Children’s Museum Charter School told one of its founding members, Raquel Regalado, that her eight year old daughter could not attend the school. The reason was because her daughter is autistic. Ms. Regalado said she would pay so that the school would have the resources it needed that would allow her daughter to go there. The school told her no.
In Tennessee, a Nashville charter school called Drexel Preparatory Academy was nearly closed due to its failure to provide special education services to sixteen students. It also wasn’t providing thirteen students who were ESL (English Second Language), with the 70 hours of required English program services it was supposed to. The school also accepted state money for lunch, but then failed to produce student lunch count records.
In Rockford, Illinois, Sharissa Hoover found that her son, who has ADHD, was repeatedly suspended from Galapagos Charter school. The school was unable to provide the educational help he needed, and didn’t have a school nurse. She ended up pulling all of her children from the school.
Ultimately, it comes down to money. Schools receive some reimbursement from the state when they provide for what students with special needs require. But, they don’t get all of that money refunded.
Many have started using a few “loopholes” to avoid taking students who have special needs. One way to do that is to make sure that they don’t have a school therapist. If a child’s IEP says that he or she needs to see a therapist, and the charter school doesn’t have one, that is a way to avoid taking those students. There are no laws that require charter schools to hire staff specifically to meet the needs of prospective students.
Image by LaPrimaDonna on Flickr