Sam Duell is the Policy Director for Charter Schools at ExcelinEd.
According to a just published report by the National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools (NCSECS), public charter schools are serving more students with disabilities than ever before. And while there’s still a gap between the percentage of students with disabilities enrolled in traditional public schools and public charter schools, that gap decreased by almost half over five years (from 3.6 percent in 2009 to 1.84 percent in 2014).
There’s more fascinating news: public charter schools are successfully expanding access to general education curriculum.
For decades, advocates have been working tirelessly for opportunities for students with disabilities to be educated in traditional, general education classrooms. In fact, the directive to accommodate students in the “least restrictive environment” is one of the main pillars of the landmark Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). As the NCSECS authors note, “the general education classroom… maximizes students’ access to the general education curriculum alongside their peers without disabilities.”
According to the report, 84 percent of students with disabilities are being educated in general education classrooms in public charter schools, compared to 68 percent in traditional public schools. This should be terrific news for special education advocates. It may also indicate that traditional public schools have something to learn from public charter schools when it comes to inclusion of students with disabilities.
The report describes the data trends but it does not reveal the reasons for trends. So here are some questions for potential further investigation.
This NCSECS report prompts many more questions. We should take advantage of this analysis for healthy reflection. If nothing else, it serves as a basic reminder that charter schools are public schools, that they do in fact serve students with disabilities, and that while there is room for improvement, charters are adapting over time.
For selected key findings from the report, see the bullet points and tables below.
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Selected findings from the National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools (NCSECS) report, “Key Trends in Special Education in Charter Schools: A Secondary Analysis of the Civil Rights Data Collection” (Rhim & Kothari, 2018).
| Enrollment by Disability Type (2013 – 2014) | ||
| % of Enrolled Students with Disabilities | Traditional Public Schools | Charter Schools |
| Specific Learning Disability | 45.98% | 49.49% |
| Autism | 6.53% | 7.2% |
| Emotional Disturbance | 4.1% | 5.06% |
| Developmental Delays | 2.07% | 0.92% |
| Intellectual Impairments | 5.89% | 3.64% |
| Other Designation Types | 35.43% | 33.69% |
| Placement (2013 – 2014) | ||
| % of School Day Included in the General Education Classroom | Traditional Public Schools | Charter Schools |
| Greater than 80% | 68.09% | 84.27% |
| Between 40% and 79% | 18.53% | 8.67% |
| Less than 40% | 11.78% | 5.08% |
