Archived Information

Introduction

If you take the entire [North Carolina] charter school act and read it from beginning to end, what you will be is confused.¹

—Harlan E. Boyles, State Treasurer, North Carolina

The Research Triangle Institute (RTI), in conjunction with SRI International, is conducting a study for the U.S. Department of Education that is examining how charter schools are serving children with disabilities. The study emphasizes field-based data collection, with parents, teachers, administrators, and students as the chief sources of information on how well charter schools are working for students with disabilities. Specifically, the study will find and present evidence on (1) the reasons parents are enrolling students with disabilities in charter schools; (2) the nature of services provided to these students, especially in contrast to the students previous schools; (3) outcome goals charter schools have for students; (4) student outcome measures charter schools employ; and (5) the extent of students success in the charter schools based on the schools outcome goals, the states accountability standards, and parents outcome expectations.

State charter school statutes provide important background for this examination of the performance of charter schools in serving students with disabilities. We reviewed state statutes to identify the ways legislatures have directly addressed special education and students with disabilities. This review of charter school legislation will inform site selection for visits to a national sample of charter schools, ensuring that the schools visited represent diversity in regard to state characteristics. The review will also provide information useful for tailoring individual data collection protocols prior to each school visit. For interview protocols, the information here will allow refinement of standard questions and development of site-specific questions to reflect the legal environment in which each school operates.

Charter schools operate in widely different legal contexts in different states. To establish the context for looking at special education provisions and to identify other statutory provisions that could have an impact on students with disabilities, we first looked broadly at the charter school statutes. We examined those elements in each state charter school statute that provide information about the legal status, authority, operational freedom, and funding sources of charter schools. This information provided a framework within which to identify specific provisions regarding students with disabilities. We then identified and examined the legislative provisions that specifically address students with disabilities or special education. These provisions address students with disabilities who are eligible for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

The following questions guided the review:

• Do state statutes include specific provisions for enrolling or serving students with disabilities?
• Do state statutes prescribe the nature of special education services in charter schools?
• If so, what is the focus of these provisions?

Specific issues addressed included admissions, services, goals, accountability, assessment procedures, and accommodations for students with disabilities.

With consideration of our purpose and resources, we limited the review in two ways. First, we did not routinely check references in the charter school statutes to other laws. A more extensive review that included following the statute reference trails would have provided additional information. Nevertheless, the charter school statutes themselves are the primary framework for charter school developers and operators, and an examination of these statutes provided sufficient general information for our purposes. A second and similar limit of the review is that we did not examine the state rules and regulations that expand and clarify provisions of the charter school statutes. Applicable rules and regulations are extensive in some states and frequently undergo updating and revision. Again, such a review would have provided additional information but would have exceeded our needs for a broad understanding of the policy climate in which charter schools operate. Additionally, another federally funded project is currently undertaking a review of charter school rules and regulations in the context of serving students with disabilities.² Throughout this paper, where appropriate, we have noted where these limitations have affected our review.³

Appended to this report are tables that summarize the findings from our analysis. Appendix Tables A and B summarize general statutory provisions that address the degree of operational and fiscal autonomy possessed by charter schools. The information presented in these two tables provides a framework within which to explore the implementation of special education programs in charter schools. Appendix Table A includes those provisions that prescribe the legal status and organizational structure of charter schools as well as any authority relating to personnel and financial matters. Appendix Table B includes those provisions that outline the extent to which charter schools are free from state and district education laws and rules, the extent to which they assume liability for their actions, and their sources of funding. Appendix Table C presents those statutory provisions that directly pertain to special education or students with disabilities.

In the appendix tables, we routinely relied on the exact words of the legislation rather than standardizing the language. For example, charter school "applications" are also referred to as "proposals" or "proposed charters," and students with disabilities may be referred to as "handicapped." To the greatest degree possible, we used the actual legislative language because the original language adds a richness to the summaries and because standardizing the language would risk inaccurate interpretations.

[Title Page]

[General Legislative Provisions]