Archived Information

The Students (continued)

Other Important Student Attributes

Students with disabilities. Based on self reports from charter schools, 7.4 percent of students enrolled in charter schools that were in operation by January 1996 had received special education services prior to being enrolled; this compares to the 10.4 percent of all students nationally who received services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in the 1994-95 school year. As discussed above, national comparisons can be misleading. Using the ten charter states as a base, we find that these states differ in the statewide average proportion of students with disabilities served under IDEA. As Exhibit 16 shows, the charter schools in all states except Minnesota and Wisconsin serve a lower percentage of students with disabilities than did all public schools. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, charter schools enroll a larger percentage of students with disabilities than do other public schools; Minnesota's charter schools enroll 18.5 percent special education students compared to 9.6 percent in the other public schools; the corresponding percentages in Wisconsin are 12.2 percent in the charter schools and 9.9 percent in the state's other public schools.

Exhibit 16--Estimated Percentage of Students with Disabilities in Charter Schools, 1995-96 and All Schools in the Ten Charter States, 1994-95³²

Because we only have state averages for all public schools in the state, we were unable to draw on data for individual schools in each state to examine the distribution of students with disabilities in all public schools in the state. Consequently, these comparisons should be considered as only a broad indication of the extent to which charter schools are serving students with disabilities compared to other public schools.

Although the average percentage of students with disabilities served by charter schools is about seven percent, individual charter schools vary widely in terms of the percentage of their students who had received special education services prior to enrolling at the charter school. The telephone survey data reveal that a number of charter schools are designed to serve special needs students. Specifically, 15 schools enroll more than 25 percent special education students; and two of these schools enroll 100 percent students with disabilities.

During the Study's preliminary fieldwork in 42 schools, we visited several schools that enroll significant numbers of students who receive special education services under IDEA. Two examples suggest the purpose of these types of charter schools:

• One K-8 charter school with 140 students was designed to serve children with learning disabilities, brain injuries, and developmental delays. Approximately 43 percent of the students in the school are identified as having special needs, with active Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). The average class size in this charter school is 22 students, with a teacher and a teaching assistant in every classroom (11:1 student to adult ratio), allowing teachers to work closely with this population. The charter has provided more flexibility to teachers at the school. For instance, students remain with the same teacher over a 3-year period. Teachers also have been able to adapt the school program to address individual student needs.

• One school serving 750 pre-kindergarten through sixth grade students was both a neighborhood school and a regional center for orthopedically handicapped students. Approximately 17 percent of the school's students are identified as special needs students with active Individualized Education Programs. Special needs students are placed for part of the day in regular classrooms with support from a teaching assistant during that time. For the remainder of the day, special needs students have instruction in very small classes with specifically trained teachers and teaching assistants.

We also visited several schools that enrolled students with less severe learning disabilities, including Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD). School staff reported that many of these students were responding positively to the more individualized instructional program and smaller class sizes at the charter school. In other cases, schools purchased special education services from the local districts or obtained services from other providers.

Charter schools that have not been created specifically to serve students with disabilities are sometimes reluctant to classify students as "special education" because they believe that every student should have an individualized learning program. Therefore, determining which students might be eligible for special education assistance and what services they now receive or should receive is difficult to assess without intensive fieldwork. Moreover, the issue of how charter schools deal with students with disabilities is complex for other reasons. It was common for administrators of charter schools visited in our field study, particularly at small and newly created charter schools, to say that the funding they received for special education was inadequate. Indeed, given the lack of district funds to amortize or subsidize costs, some administrators expressed a fear of going "bankrupt" if a large number of parents of students with disabilities were attracted to their schools. Furthermore, we received reports that some charter schools seemed to counsel parents to send their children to other public schools where they could receive better services.

Because of these considerations, we can not offer an accurate estimate of the number and type of services now being provided, nor can we reach a conclusion about the extent to which charter schools are enrolling special education students relative to other public schools in their area. Research to address these issues is currently beyond the scope of this Study.

Limited-English-proficient students. About seven percent of the total student population attending charter schools were reported by the schools to be limited-English-proficient (LEP) students. These charter school figures are very close to the estimated 6.8 percent of public K-12 students nationally that are classified as limited-English-proficient.³³ Twenty-one charter schools serve student populations composed of more than 25 percent LEP students.

As Exhibit 17 shows, LEP student enrollment in all public schools in the ten charter states ranges from nearly 25 percent of the student population in California to one percent of the students nationally that are classified as limited-English-proficient.³⁴ Twenty-one charter schools serve student populations composed of more than 25 percent LEP students.

Exhibit 17--Estimated Percentage of LEP Students and Students Eligible for Free or a Reduced Priced Lunch in Charter Schools, 1995-96 and All Schools in the Ten Charter States, 1993-94

LEP student enrollment in all public schools in the ten charter states ranges from nearly 25 percent of the student population in California to one percent of the student population in Georgia. By comparison, enrollment of LEP students in charter schools in the ten states ranges from no LEP students in Wisconsin charter schools to a high of 19 percent LEP student enrollment in California charter schools. Minnesota and Massachusetts charter schools enroll a larger percentage of LEP students than do the other public schools in their states. In the remaining eight states, the percentage of LEP students in charter schools is lower than in the state's other public schools. Research to address issues that may arise for language minority students in charter schools is currently beyond the scope of this Study.

Low-income students. As part of the telephone survey, we asked how many students at each of the charter schools were eligible for free or a reduced price lunch. Based on these data, 33.8 percent of the students enrolled in charter schools were eligible; this is very similar to the 36.6 percent of all students in the ten charter school states eligible for this program. Exhibit 17 compares the statewide averages of charter schools compared to all public schools. Approximately 46 percent of the surveyed charter schools reported that the school participates in the National School Lunch Program.

Participation in Title I. Charter schools do not always fit easily within current administrative and funding structures, which raises questions about whether charter schools are participating equitably in federal programs. The largest of these programs, Title I, provides assistance to schools and districts serving disadvantaged children. Federal Title I funds are allocated to districts and schools on the basis of formulas relating to the number and proportion of disadvantaged children in the district and in the school. It is often not clear whether and how charters fit into these funding formulas and whether they may participate in Title I and other federal programs due to several complex factors that are beyond the scope of this Report. Two-thirds of charter schools reported that they are eligible to receive Title I funds; however, slightly fewer than half (47 percent) of these schools report that they receive funding under the program (see Exhibit 18).³⁹ There was considerable variability across states; in Minnesota, 77 percent of the charter schools reporting eligibility also receive funding, while in Michigan only 25 percent do. Only in Georgia do all of the schools reporting eligibility also receive funding.

Exhibit 18--State-by-State Comparison of Charter Schools: Reported Eligibility and Receipt of Title I Funding, 1995-96

State	Number of respondents37	Number reporting eligibility	Number reporting eligibility that receive funding38	Percent reporting eligibility that receive funding
California	83	46	26	56.5%
Arizona	38	27	12	44.4%
Michigan	38	28	7	25.0%
Colorado	22	7	0	0%
Minnesota	17	13	10	76.9%
Massachusetts	13	9	6	66.7%
Wisconsin	5	1	0	0%
New Mexico	4	4	2	50.0%
Georgia	3	2	2	100%
Hawaii	2	0	?	?
Total	225	137	65	47.4%

However, it is not clear to what extent charter schools that are eligible to receive Title I funds are actually not receiving funding. We will continue to study the extent to which charter schools that are eligible to receive Title I funds do not receive them because of administrative issues or whether some charter schools do not understand the complexity of Title I eligibility.⁴⁰
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[The Students]

[Summary]