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Special Ed 101
Charter Schools / Special Education
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<blockquote data-quote="PollyParent" data-source="post: 51912" data-attributes="member: 3822"><p>The idea that the charter does not need services simply because they are small sounds suspect to me. And just because they are "part" of a Unified district does not mean that the charter has access to the District's employees or resources. It depends upon what is written into the charter.</p><p></p><p>The issue that I've come across in dealing with charter schools and Special Education is a hidden one of the charter school not wanting to become a magnet for Special Education students but not being legally allowed to discriminate.</p><p></p><p>One of the first issues I had to face when I became a school board member was a charter school petition. The charter, as part of the public system, had to publicly state that it would not discriminate against students needing accomodations. However, some of the petitioners told me privately that they were very concerned that the school would be flooded by Learning Disability (LD) studens when they opened because their reading philosophy was different than the other public schools in the area. It would be more conducive to students with certain reading and comprehension difficulties. BUT, they hadn't factored a reading specialist into their budget.</p><p></p><p>Eventually the petition was denied at the District level and then the appeal to the County level was denied as well. The County found in its opinion that the charter had falsely dedicated to providing SpecEd services to its students whereas it had never even met with the County SELPA (Special Education Local Plan Area), let alone contracted with them to provide services.</p><p></p><p>I have learned since then that the petitioners were given the advice to "fly under the radar" by their legal counsel regarding providing services for Special Education. It was bad advice as it turned out.</p><p></p><p>I would advise you to be very careful about assuming that the charter is prepared to adress your child's needs. The simple way to find out is just to ask. Find out if there are kids at the charter with IEPs; ask if your county has a SELPA; and ask if the charter takes part in the SELPA arrangement. (Partaking of county services means that the charter does not have to hire their own resource people.) </p><p></p><p>All charters are not the same. You have to READ the charter itself to understand how the school operates.</p><p></p><p>PollyParent</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="PollyParent, post: 51912, member: 3822"] The idea that the charter does not need services simply because they are small sounds suspect to me. And just because they are "part" of a Unified district does not mean that the charter has access to the District's employees or resources. It depends upon what is written into the charter. The issue that I've come across in dealing with charter schools and Special Education is a hidden one of the charter school not wanting to become a magnet for Special Education students but not being legally allowed to discriminate. One of the first issues I had to face when I became a school board member was a charter school petition. The charter, as part of the public system, had to publicly state that it would not discriminate against students needing accomodations. However, some of the petitioners told me privately that they were very concerned that the school would be flooded by Learning Disability (LD) studens when they opened because their reading philosophy was different than the other public schools in the area. It would be more conducive to students with certain reading and comprehension difficulties. BUT, they hadn't factored a reading specialist into their budget. Eventually the petition was denied at the District level and then the appeal to the County level was denied as well. The County found in its opinion that the charter had falsely dedicated to providing SpecEd services to its students whereas it had never even met with the County SELPA (Special Education Local Plan Area), let alone contracted with them to provide services. I have learned since then that the petitioners were given the advice to "fly under the radar" by their legal counsel regarding providing services for Special Education. It was bad advice as it turned out. I would advise you to be very careful about assuming that the charter is prepared to adress your child's needs. The simple way to find out is just to ask. Find out if there are kids at the charter with IEPs; ask if your county has a SELPA; and ask if the charter takes part in the SELPA arrangement. (Partaking of county services means that the charter does not have to hire their own resource people.) All charters are not the same. You have to READ the charter itself to understand how the school operates. PollyParent [/QUOTE]
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