Special Education in Charter Schools

1
Special Education in Charter Schools

• Lauren Morando Rhim
• University of Maryland

2
Review of Select Research Studies

• Westat
• RAND study of California
• Project SEARCH
• SPEDTACS (Technical Assistance Project)

3
Three Major Findings Project SEARCH

• Policy Tensions
• Knowledge Gap
• Critical Role of Legal Identity and Linkage

4
Policy Tensions

• Autonomy and Regulation
• Parental Choice and Team Decision-making

5
Special Education Knowledge Gap

• IDEA Requires Depth of Knowledge
• Critical Gap between Knowledge and Practice
• Lack of Knowledge Interferes with Successful
  Implementation
• Knowledge Gap Apparent at All Levels

6
Legal Identity and Linkage

• Total-link
• For purposes of special educationlinked to
  existing LEA
• Partial-link
• For purposes of special educationlegally
  independent, but legislated requirement for
  negotiated relationship
• No-link
• Legally independent in all areas including
  special education. Bears total responsibility
  for IDEA

7
Issues for Total-link States

• Trade-offs
• Benefit from depth of LEA experience, but must
  negotiate and can result in conformity
• Limits on autonomy
• Special education staff hires
• Service delivery model

8
Issues for Partial-link States

• Linkage manifests itself on continuum
• Negotiation can still be an issue
• Responsibility can be confusing

9
Issues for No-link States

• Providing continuum of special education services
• Start-up of special education program
• Issues relating to size and autonomy

10
Implications of Findings

• Understanding how to address policy tensions
• Autonomy versus regulation
• Charter schools need an infrastructure to
  alleviate the problems
• Addressing knowledge gap
• Understanding the role of linkage when writing
  and amending laws
• Providing more definition to prevent problems and
  issues

11
New Research

• Project Intersect Studying the Intersection of
  Special Education and Charter Schools
• Analytical Model Project Intersect will examine
  the relationship among three sets of variables
  and charter schools special education procedures
  and practices. The three sets of variables
  include 1) features of the charter school law, 2)
  characteristics of charter schools, and 3) nature
  and type of special education technical
  assistance and infrastructure

12
Project Intersect

• Special Education Infrastructure an LEA, special
  education or charter school cooperative, or other
  service delivery structure (e.g., local
  non-profit, risk pooling arrangement, or
  education management organization) that provides
  a charter school with technical assistance, a
  financial safety net, and the multiple
  specialized instructional personnel charter
  schools require to deliver appropriate special
  education programs.

13
Research Methodology

• Record Review/Review of the Literature
• Survey of State Directors of Special Education
  and State Directors of Charter Schools
• Survey of and Interviews with Charter School
  Authorizers
• Charter School Operator Survey
• Case Studies of Administrative and Organizational
  Infrastructures

14
Preliminary Findings

• Key challenges finance, special education and
  related services professionals
• Select states are developing TA systems, most are
  simply integrating charter schools into
  traditional systems
• Infrastructures are emerging, field/consumer
  driven