New Study Reveals Privately-Run Charter Schools Under-Enroll Students with Disabilities
A new first-of-its-kind report released today proves the theory advocates for students with disabilities and public schools have been saying for years: charter schools are enrolling fewer students with disabilities. Those they do enroll generally have less severe – and therefore less costly – disabilities, and that this is having a disparate fiscal impact on public school districts. The report and brief, LINK à State of Denial: California Charter Schools and Special Education Students, conducted by United Teachers Los Angeles and California Teachers Association researchers, calculated the cost disparity on San Diego Unified School District, Los Angeles Unified School District, and Oakland Unified School District, and found the gross fiscal impact for these three districts to be between $64.52 million and $97.19 million annually.
“For years, we have heard anecdotally from parents, public and charter educators that the charter industry under-enrolls students with disabilities. For the first time, we can now quantify those stories using data from three of the three largest charter authorizers in the state. Beyond the civil rights concerns, there are also stark fiscal impacts on our public schools. This report shows a disturbing a pattern that, if left unchecked, means we are looking down the barrel of a public education system that will become increasingly segregated and destabilized,” said Elaine Grace Regullano, UTLA’s Strategic Research and Analytics Director and co-author of the report.
In the 2016 – 2017 academic year, SDUSD, LAUSD, and OUSD charter schools were serving significantly fewer students with disabilities than district schools – 11.01% vs. 14.27%. In Oakland, charter schools enrolled students at roughly half the rate of district-run schools (7.67% vs. 13.58%). Charter schools in SDUSD, LAUSD, and OUSD were serving a statistically smaller share of students with the most severe disabilities, who are also generally the most expensive to serve, including a persistent under-enrollment of students with autism, intellectual disabilities, multiple disabilities, and orthopedic impairment. In CONTINUE READING: New Study Reveals Privately-Run Charter Schools Under-Enroll Students with Disabilities | UTLA