Today, the Government Accountability Office – the investigative arm of Congress – issued a report which shows that students with disabilities are under-represented in charter schools. The report titled, Charter Schools: Additional Federal Attention Needed to Help Protect Access for Students with Disabilities revealed that the enrollment of students with disabilities in charter school is 8% while students with disabilities comprise 11% of the traditional public school student enrollment.
This discrepancy has been cited by previous reports and has been a top concern for CEC. In 2011, CEC updated its policy on charter schools to emphasize the importance of charter schools complying with IDEA and all federal laws, particularly as it relates to enrollment and the delivery of special education services.
As the GAO report indicates, reasons for under-enrollment of students with disabilities in charter schools continues to be somewhat unknown and the information that is available often relies on anecdotal feedback. However, reoccurring themes cited include: parents of children with disabilities choosing not to enroll their child in a charter school, charter schools may be unable to provide special education and related services, transportation challenges may exist in getting to and from the charter school, and charter schools may “counsel out” parents from enrolling their child. While more information and data needs to be provided to gain a clearer picture of this issue, it remains a fact that charter schools are public schools that must comply with IDEA and other federal laws.
Additionally, the GAO report found that charter schools enroll fewer students with disabilities in all 13 of IDEA’s disability categories, with a significant gap in enrollment for students with significant disabilities.
While the report highlights some proactive practices charter schools are taking to enroll students with disabilities and strengthen their special education programs, it also exposes some concerning findings such as that a charter school visited by GAO representatives explained that when a student’s IEP includes a special education service that the charter school does not offer, the IEP team has modified the IEP to accommodate the charter school’s program and services.
CEC is pleased that the GAO report will prompt the U.S. Department of Education to update existing guidance to ensure that charter schools have better information about their obligations related to students with disabilities. Additionally, the Department has indicated it will conduct additional fact finding and research on factors that may be affecting enrollment of students with disabilities in charter schools.
Read CEC’s Policy on Children with Exceptionalities in Charter Schools.
Read the GAO Report.
Read Education Week’s story.