D.C.’s charter schools are faring even worse than the public schools in getting help for disabled and ill students, a federal court monitor is reporting.
Federal law requires children with special needs to be tested and served on tight deadlines. But charter school officials routinely miss the deadlines, court monitor Amy Totenberg reported in court papers filed last week.
The charters are testing children on time less than 30 percent of the time and providing education plans on time barely 10 percent of the time, Totenberg reported. The blown deadlines leave children with disabilities from verbal tics to Down syndrome without critical care required by federal law. It also drives up taxpayer costs because children can then sue the school system and obtain pricey private education at public expense.
“Some schools were frank to concede that they would not admit students who required a large number of hours of specialized service or had specific diagnoses they were not equipped to serve,” a violation of federal law, Totenberg wrote. “Such charters assume that they have no obligation to offer services to those students requiring the most intensive and extensive services — and refer the students for full-time therapeutic placement.”
Nona Mitchell-Richardson, spokeswoman for the Public Charter School Board, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Schools expert Mary Levy said that Totenberg’s report may lead to a confrontation between city officials and charter board leader Josephine Baker.
“The fact of the matter is, that there was no effective oversight of their performance for a long time,” Levy said. “This is public money. Public money always comes with obligations.”
