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| Seal of the General Accounting Office, from 1921 until being renamed in 2004. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
In a new report, the federal Government Accountability Office, nee the General Accounting Office, has found that charter schools enroll a smaller percentage of children with disabilities than public schools do. In school year 2009-2010, about 11% of children enrolled in public schools were children with disabilities. During the same period, about 8% of children enrolled in charter schools had disabilities.
The authors of the report are unsure why the charter schools numbers were lower and do not attribute any conclusion, but critics have charged that some charters do not accept enough children with disabilities. See, Weber, Mark C., Special Education from the (Damp) Ground Up: Children with Disabilities in a Charter School-Dependent Educational System (October 12, 2009). Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1487667; Charters, Students With Disabilities Need Not Apply,” by Prof. Thomas Herir, (op-ed piece) Education Week online January 25, 2010, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/01/27/19hehir_ep.h29.html?tkn=QQNC6AY97%2B01O7%2Bu4nwLnioyJY%2BAvdDbAtIU
As always, you should read the report yourself. You can read the entire GAO report here. A summary is available here.
