Archived Information

Students with Disabilities

Like all public schools, charter schools are required to provide access and services to students with disabilities. Over the last 3 years, charter schools have served a slightly lower proportion of students with disabilities than all public schools in the charter states, and this finding continued to be true this year. Across states, the percentage of students with disabilities served by charter schools continued to vary significantly, in part because a higher proportion of charter schools in some states were specifically designed to serve this population of students.

• In 1998–99, charter schools enrolled 3 percent fewer students with disabilities than all public schools (8 percent versus 11 percent) in the 27 charter states (in 1997–98).

• The percentage of students with disabilities in charter schools and all public schools was within 5 percent in most states. Ohio was the only state where the percentage of students with disabilities was at least 5 points higher in charter schools than in all public schools. The percentage of students with disabilities was at least 5 points lower in charter schools than in all public schools in six states: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Michigan, and New Jersey.

• The percentage of students with disabilities varied more from state to state for charter than for all public schools in the 27 charter states. The percentage of charter students with disabilities ranged from 5 percent in Delaware and Louisiana to 18 percent in Florida. In comparison, the percentage of students with disabilities in all public schools in the 27 charter states ranged from 9 percent in Arizona to 16 percent in Massachusetts.

• Last year, the numbers of student with disabilities in charter schools versus all public schools was more than 10 percent higher in Florida and more than 10 percent lower in New Jersey. These differences decreased to 4 percent in Florida and 8 percent in New Jersey this year.

Estimated Number and Percentage of Students with Disabilities in the 27 Charter States

NOTE: These data are based on responses from 931 of the 975 open charter schools that responded to the survey. Of the 931 schools, 7 schools in 4 states (Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, and Rhode Island) are not displayed in the table because each state has 3 or fewer charter schools that provided information about this question and percentages are not meaningful. The "total" row includes data from all 27 of the charter states.

SOURCE: The numerator (number of students served under IDEA) was drawn from the Twenty– first Annual report to Congress of the Implementation of the individuals with Disabilities Education Act, U.S. Department of Education, (forthcoming). The denominator (enrollment in the 27 charter states) was drawn from the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data Survey, 1997–98.

Estimated Percentage of Students with Disabilities in Charter Schools and All Public Schools

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C. Students of Charter Schools (Part 3)

C. Students of Charter Schools (Part 5)