The recent New York state budget may have largely settled the tug of war between Mayor de Blasio and co-locating charter schools that has been playing out in New York over the last month or so, but an unpleasant and lingering issue still needs to be addressed – the disingenuous way that students with disabilities were dragged into the fight.
We commend Andrea Gabor for raising an important issue: children with disabilities’ equal access to charter schools. As New York and other states work to grow the charter sector as part of larger education reform efforts focused on improving the quality of public education, we must ensure that charter schools are open to all students.
We recently launched a new non-profit organization, The Center for Learner Equity, to focus squarely on identifying facts about how students with disabilities are and are not being well served in the charter sector.
The mission of The Center for Learner Equity (The Center for Learner Equity) is to advocate for students with diverse learning needs to…
The Center for Learner Equity (The Center for Learner Equity) is committed to ensuring equal access and exceptional opportunities for all students in charter schools.
There is an important issue impacting kids with disabilities in charter schools lurking in paragraph 4, below. With a teaser like that, hopefully you will make it through some background.
The U.S. Department of Education has released new non-regulatory guidance regarding weighted charter school lotteries. In a nutshell, the new guidance is less a significant policy change than an expanded interpretation of existing policy regarding practices that are permissible by charter schools that seek to secure CSP grants fund.
Two recent analyses of New York City charter schools include data regarding the enrollment and mobility of students with disabilities. While many questions remain, the two reports are examples of the type of research essential to having informed policy discussions regarding how to ensure students with disabilities have equal access to charter schools.
Every few years, the U.S. Department of Education conducts a competition that provides millions of dollars of funding for “national activities grants” through the federal Public Charter Schools Program.
I once made a New Year’s resolution to eat pizza only once a month and to jog out in the cold late in the evenings 3 days per week, despite the winter weather in New Jersey. Neither got much traction. This year, my New Year’s resolution is to post regular blog entries on this site.
