Frequently Asked Questions about Special Education
in Charter Schools
- Must Charter Schools accept all students?
- What does it mean to have the capability to provide special education services?
- When does a charter school need to have the capability to provide special education services and comply with federal and state laws?
- How are charter schools delivering appropriate special education services in the school?
- Do charter schools have to hire licensed special educators?
- What should sponsors advise charter schools about accessible facilities?
- What are the major expenses associated with special education in charter schools?
- How can charter schools plan for their expenses related to special education?
- What kind of funding is available to charter schools for special education?
- How does the charter school get the state and federal special education funding?
- How do charter schools pay for the costs associated with providing special education services?
- What is excess cost as it relates to special education?
- Do charter schools have to provide transportation to students with disabilities?
1. Must Charter Schools accept all students?
The simple answer is yes. The more complex answer is that sponsors and Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) officials should require applicants to articulate their mission explicitly and ensure that the charter school is clear that students with disabilities will want to enroll in their school and that they are prepared to offer reasonable accommodations to children with disabilities who elect to attend the school.
A key component of reasonable accommodations is a school culture that incorporates a commitment to offering accommodations to individuals with disabilities while guarding against substantively changing the nature of the school's mission. Sponsors, boards and MDE officials should scrutinize charter schools' admission policies to ensure that the policies don't block enrollment for particular students or groups of students.
2. What does it mean to have the capability to provide special education services?
Special education capability necessitates having the human, fiscal and legal resources required to fulfill the responsibilities articulated in IDEIA. Capability includes the ability to:
- Implement existing IEPs;
- Refer eligible students to special education;
- Conduct evaluations;
- Develop IEPs; and
- Provide special education and related services for all evaluated students enrolled in the school.
Charter schools need to have the capacity to meet their legal responsibility for special education and comply with federal and state laws on the first day they open.
4. How are charter schools delivering appropriate special education services in the school?
Building special education capacity may involve various arrangements with other school districts, agencies and vendors. Approaches charter schools use to increase their special education capacity include:
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Hiring appropriately licensed professionals;
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Contracting with a local education agency;
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Contracting with a regional education agency or cooperative;
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Contracting with individuals or organizations qualified to provide special education or related services; or
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Some combination of these approaches.
Typically in MN, charter schools hire their own (appropriately licensed) special education teachers and contract with related services providers on an hourly basis. As long as charter schools can ensure that children with disabilities enrolled in their schools have access to a free appropriate public education, they may utilize a variety of strategies to reach capacity.
5. Do charter schools have to hire licensed special educators?
Appropriate licensure for special education teachers is required by federal law and, as a result, cannot be waived by state charter school law. In Minnesota charter schools typically need to have a teacher(s) licensed in Specific Learning Disabilities, Emotional Behavioral Disorders, and Developmental Cognitive Disabilities.
6. What should sponsors advise charter schools about accessible facilities?
Charter Schools must provide access to all students by following the guidelines of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
7. What are the major expenses associated with special education in charter schools?
Expenses associated with special education fall into four general categories: personnel, supplies/equipment, facility modifications and transportation. The largest, by far, is personnel. The amount a charter school will need to allocate to these categories and the degree to which these expenses are expected should be determined in consultation with the special education director.
8. How can charter schools plan for their expenses related to special education?
Nationally and in MN, approximately 13 percent of the public school population is identified as eligible for special education services. As a general rule of thumb, charter schools should anticipate that approximately 13 percent of their student population will be students with disabilities and budget accordingly. Certain schools, however, may attract a larger percentage of students with disabilities, either by design or by accident.
The charter school should work with a licensed director of special education and an experienced school business manager to anticipate this and to complete a preliminary budget early in the planning stages and continuously refine it throughout the development stage and then annually once the school is operational.
9. What kind of funding is available to charter schools for special education?
Each student who enrolls in a charter school generates funding called general education revenue. This revenue supports the majority of the school's budget. Special education students generate this funding, too, and it is presumed to form the foundation of their education as well.
In addition to the general education revenue, charter schools can receive state and federal special education funds through the MN Department of Education. The federal funding is based on the number of special education students enrolled in the school, the school's total enrollment, and the school's free and reduced lunch count. The state special education aid is based on the school's special education expenditures and is a percentage reimbursement.
10. How does the charter school get the state and federal special education funding?
In Minnesota, charter schools are required to employ the services of a licensed director of special education. The director of special education and the school's director complete an annual application and statement of assurances in order to request this funding. The MN Department of Education will not allow a charter school to receive this funding until the application is completed and approved.
Once the application is approved, charter schools must enter special education expenditures in an on-line reporting system called Electronic Data Reporting System (EDRS). State special education aid comes to the school in metered payments bi-weekly, along with general education aid. Federal special education payments are made separately, once a month during the school year. The school must employ or contract with someone to complete this reporting.
11. How do charter schools pay for the costs associated with providing special education services?
There are federal, state, and local resources to pay for special education as described above. However, historically these resources are less than what districts spend to fulfill the requirements of IDEA. Sponsors, boards and MDE should ensure that applicants know how to access all the federal, state and local resources that are available to their children with disabilities.
State and federal special education funds cover approximately half of the cost of special education. In Minnesota, charter schools are allowed to recover the unreimbursed costs (those not covered by state or federal special education funds), which are sometimes called excess costs, by invoicing the special education students' resident school districts. A "resident school district" is the traditional school district within whose boundaries the child's parents live. Charter schools developers should be advised to consider developing a reserve for cash flow purposes, since this billing is usually done only once a year.
12. What is excess cost as it relates to special education?
Excess costs are the costs a school or district incurs as a result of providing special education services but which are not covered by state or federal special education funding sources. In Minnesota there are very few differences between special education funding for traditional schools and charter schools. One major difference is that traditional school districts generate state funds called excess cost aid, which covers some of the excess costs of special education.
Charter schools do not generate excess cost aid. Instead, they must complete the process of invoicing the resident district for the excess costs of providing special education. This process is called the uniform tuition billing process. Traditional school districts in Minnesota also do tuition billing in some cases.
13. Do charter schools have to provide transportation to students with disabilities?
Although state charter school laws generally articulate charter schools' responsibility related to transporting students to and from school, transporting children with disabilities is a separate issue because transportation can be a related service provided as a component of a child's IEP. If transportation is identified as a related service, because the child's disability necessitates special transportation, the transportation becomes a part of the child's rights under IDEIA. The responsibility for transporting the child to the charter school falls to the resident district.
From Ahern, Eileen et al. Primers on Special Education and Charter Schools: Compilation of Full Primer Set. National Association of State Directors of Special Education Inc., http://www.nasde.org/project_spedtacs.htm.