Petition to DC Council for FY 2024 Charter School Budgets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amazing how much people argue over pennies in the budget.

Let the charter teachers get paid. Teaching is not easy, doesnt matter where you are.

+1 charter teachers are responsible for teaching almost 50% of the kids in DC.

+1000 and a majority of those kids are low income…

Wow, following this thread and guess adults on here don’t care about the kids in this city. It’s about me, politics, and whatever else.

Not only are almost 1/2 of the kids in charters but over 70% of all these charter kids are black (much higher percentage than DCPS) and almost 50% at risk.

And you wonder why the academic achievements in the city are so abysmal……nobody places them first in this game the adults are playing.

Quite the contrary, it's because I care so much about low income kids that I support more accountability for the charter sector. (I also support reform for DCPS but that's a different set of proposals). There are several charters circling the drain, others that have been given a pass by a lax authorizer for too many years. I am a charter parent myself, but looking at the city overall, we need to acknowledge the performance of many charter schools is not good-- and when it is good, that's because of easier demographics. The charter sector is badly in need of reform, and that is why I cannot support any increase in funding without policy changes along with it. I do think teachers should be paid more, but this is the leverage we have.

WTF. Are you for real?? Like there are not bad actors and schools in DCPS who have far, far worst outcomes than charters. Like the middle and high schools operating with single digits percentages of students at grade level?? What the hell accountability is there but to socially promote the kids? What about all the damn new programs every year that DCPS uses consultants and pays millions with no positive outcome. What about the corruption and bloating of central office.

JFC, get off your high horse. There are bad schools in both charter and DCPS and you want to throw out the baby with the bath water. Screw all the kids and schools that are doing good stuff.

Oh for Pete's sake. DCPS sucks, so give us everything we want with no accountability. You could not be more of a cliche with your tired talking points.

Nobody's talking about throwing out the whole charter sector. I simply support more accountability for charters, and believe the city shouldn't provide any additional funding without negotiating for quality improvements. Yes there are problems in DCPS, but they are of a different policy nature, and they don't change my view of this particular charter funding issue.

Charters close and that’s been happening for some time. DCPS has been accused of not using at-risk money correctly, having an overly bloated central office and not following the students first budget law. I don’t hear anyone calling for holding educator pay because of it. Hypocritical much??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t think so. Tell your charter board to increase teacher salaries if you don’t like current pay structures. Charter teachers should unionize if they want the collective bargaining power that the WTU has. Why on earth should they benefit from the DCPS union’s efforts if they choose not to unionize (MV aside)?

Some context for anyone who’s trying to figure out what this is about: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1109459.page

This is silly. Salaries can't be increased independent of funding. The salaries of the unionized charter school are lower than the other charters. It isn't that the union isn't effective, they just can't raise salaries to compete with other charters (or DCPS) without getting equivalent funding.

Charters choose to pay their teachers lower salaries in many cases. They want to be independent and therefore they choose how to allocate their budgets. They choose their staffing numbers, salaries, etc. Advocate with your charter leaders to increase teacher pay in their budgeting.

How would you guarantee the increase in budget would go to teacher salaries? There is not guarantee that all that money would go to salaries. The lack of oversight and wanting an independent organization makes taxpayers such as myself wary of giving a bunch of money to charters.



WITH WHAT MONEY? How does a school pay their teachers more when the increase in UPSFF doesn't cover the inflationary increase to our fixed costs? Where do we get the funds? Many schools are enrolled to capacity- we can't just "add kids" because we have an enrollment cap. We can't reduce fixed costs on our facilities because we have to meet debt covenant ratios based on loans and it isn't like food/material costs are going down.

What magical budgeting skills do you think we have? Cutting "bloated" salaries...okay, lets just assume that I can do that...how much do you think that will save? A hundred grand? Cool- so all my teachers get a $2,500 raise? Compare that to the increases in DCPS...do you think we can keep teachers in our classrooms? If not, who does that hurt the most? The 48% of at-risk students that charters serve throughout the city.

Wake up- this isn't to fill to coffers of charter schools...

You can apply for an increase in enrollment cap and that will allow you to increase class sizes.
You can try harder to fill up empty seats before Count Day.
You can stop spending money on consultants, admin salaries, and charter management organizations.
You can lower your quality to DCPS levels-- honestly, that's a big part of the difference.

WHAT? Did you just say these public charter schools (that serve majority black and brown kids across the city) should just lower the quality of instruction? Wow.

Also, charters can't just "apply" for an enrollment cap increase. That whole process wasn't even available for the last two cycles due to PCSB changing the rules and not offering the opportunity last year. Also, the enrollment ceilings for most schools aren't just willy-nilly- they match the legal occupancy of your buildings. Of course we want to have more students, but our school facilities are very different than DCPS- we don't have large underutilization in most charter schools.

I do agree- the place to cut would be consultants, admin, and CMOs (for the ONE CHARTER IN DC THAT PAYS A CMO). However, that isn't going to get you very far when it comes to raising teacher salaries to mirror DCPS.

I understand being flummoxed by the situation. I wish the Mayor decided to do this the same way it was done the last two times there was a WTU increase and put the funds through the UPSFF. There is a lot of historical precedent for the city following the law around equitable funding after large WTU increases. These are operational funds and should, by law, go through the funding mechanism. If they want to change that- change the law, but that will require public discourse. Not just a budget hearing.

I said they can match DCPS' quality. If you have a problem with that, then maybe you should be more supportive of DCPS.

If you want more space there's always trailers, like DCPS uses. Or dividing across multiple buildings, like DCPS does. Or utilizing less than ideal spaces, like DCPS does. It's a bit rich to complain about money but refuse to implement the solutions that DCPS has to use.

Nope- you said No, you said "You can lower your quality to DCPS levels-- honestly, that's a big part of the difference." You can literally read it in your pp.

And I am hugely supportive of DCPS- I send one of my kids there, volunteer on the LSAT, and show up for DCPS hearings/groups, etc.

You are so wrong to think that charters don't use trailers, or divide across multiple buildings. The occupancy study across all schools found that DCPS has major underutilization (esp. at the high school level).

Unfortunately, I don't think you are very in to backing up your statements with any data (and you don't seem to know much about the charter sector's very real challenges with facilities, staffing, and all of the other challenges DCPS faces). I find it stunning that people are so intrenched in a political point of view that you would want the teachers and children in those schools to get less funding....mind blowing.

+1. What’s even more mind blowing is that people don’t realize that if there were zero charters the remaining public schools (DCPS) would be completely under-resourced. Not better resourced. DC made a calculated decision to not put increases through the regular mechanism to spend less on education overall. If all the charters closed, the amount being given to DCPS outside of the regular mechanism would just be spread over more students and educators. Parents who are depending on charters or both DCPS and charters should have a problem with any disinvestments in education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dear Charter supporters: which one of your schools has a life skills classroom? I'll wait. And MANY (not all, I realize) so called "highly regarded" charters have no self contained classrooms special ed classrooms at all.

If you're not going to educate all our kids, don't come at me with "it isn't fair."

There are self contained classrooms at my charter school. Why do you think there aren’t? Which school concerns you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t think so. Tell your charter board to increase teacher salaries if you don’t like current pay structures. Charter teachers should unionize if they want the collective bargaining power that the WTU has. Why on earth should they benefit from the DCPS union’s efforts if they choose not to unionize (MV aside)?

Some context for anyone who’s trying to figure out what this is about: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1109459.page

This is silly. Salaries can't be increased independent of funding. The salaries of the unionized charter school are lower than the other charters. It isn't that the union isn't effective, they just can't raise salaries to compete with other charters (or DCPS) without getting equivalent funding.

Charters choose to pay their teachers lower salaries in many cases. They want to be independent and therefore they choose how to allocate their budgets. They choose their staffing numbers, salaries, etc. Advocate with your charter leaders to increase teacher pay in their budgeting.

Clearly math isn’t your forte. There is a per pupil funding amount that public schools receive. They budget within that. They can move money around but with educator salaries gerald being a larger percentage of school budgets increases are capped by the per pupil amount. Unfortunately, just cutting doesn’t yield enough for decent salary increases when there are fixed costs like mortgages and essential like utilities, food, etc have risen rapidly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t think so. Tell your charter board to increase teacher salaries if you don’t like current pay structures. Charter teachers should unionize if they want the collective bargaining power that the WTU has. Why on earth should they benefit from the DCPS union’s efforts if they choose not to unionize (MV aside)?

Some context for anyone who’s trying to figure out what this is about: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1109459.page

This is silly. Salaries can't be increased independent of funding. The salaries of the unionized charter school are lower than the other charters. It isn't that the union isn't effective, they just can't raise salaries to compete with other charters (or DCPS) without getting equivalent funding.

Charters choose to pay their teachers lower salaries in many cases. They want to be independent and therefore they choose how to allocate their budgets. They choose their staffing numbers, salaries, etc. Advocate with your charter leaders to increase teacher pay in their budgeting.

Clearly math isn’t your forte. There is a per pupil funding amount that public schools receive. They budget within that. They can move money around but with educator salaries gerald being a larger percentage of school budgets increases are capped by the per pupil amount. Unfortunately, just cutting doesn’t yield enough for decent salary increases when there are fixed costs like mortgages and essential like utilities, food, etc have risen rapidly.

Charters have rich donors, some are part of vast organizations and some are for profit. You don’t think they could get more funding? No they’d rather have more tax payer dollars to do whatever they want at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t think so. Tell your charter board to increase teacher salaries if you don’t like current pay structures. Charter teachers should unionize if they want the collective bargaining power that the WTU has. Why on earth should they benefit from the DCPS union’s efforts if they choose not to unionize (MV aside)?

Some context for anyone who’s trying to figure out what this is about: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1109459.page

This is silly. Salaries can't be increased independent of funding. The salaries of the unionized charter school are lower than the other charters. It isn't that the union isn't effective, they just can't raise salaries to compete with other charters (or DCPS) without getting equivalent funding.

Charters choose to pay their teachers lower salaries in many cases. They want to be independent and therefore they choose how to allocate their budgets. They choose their staffing numbers, salaries, etc. Advocate with your charter leaders to increase teacher pay in their budgeting.

Clearly math isn’t your forte. There is a per pupil funding amount that public schools receive. They budget within that. They can move money around but with educator salaries gerald being a larger percentage of school budgets increases are capped by the per pupil amount. Unfortunately, just cutting doesn’t yield enough for decent salary increases when there are fixed costs like mortgages and essential like utilities, food, etc have risen rapidly.

Charters have rich donors, some are part of vast organizations and some are for profit. You don’t think they could get more funding? No they’d rather have more tax payer dollars to do whatever they want at the school.

As do almost all W3 schools. And your point is...?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t think so. Tell your charter board to increase teacher salaries if you don’t like current pay structures. Charter teachers should unionize if they want the collective bargaining power that the WTU has. Why on earth should they benefit from the DCPS union’s efforts if they choose not to unionize (MV aside)?

Some context for anyone who’s trying to figure out what this is about: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1109459.page

This is silly. Salaries can't be increased independent of funding. The salaries of the unionized charter school are lower than the other charters. It isn't that the union isn't effective, they just can't raise salaries to compete with other charters (or DCPS) without getting equivalent funding.

Charters choose to pay their teachers lower salaries in many cases. They want to be independent and therefore they choose how to allocate their budgets. They choose their staffing numbers, salaries, etc. Advocate with your charter leaders to increase teacher pay in their budgeting.

Clearly math isn’t your forte. There is a per pupil funding amount that public schools receive. They budget within that. They can move money around but with educator salaries gerald being a larger percentage of school budgets increases are capped by the per pupil amount. Unfortunately, just cutting doesn’t yield enough for decent salary increases when there are fixed costs like mortgages and essential like utilities, food, etc have risen rapidly.

Charters have rich donors, some are part of vast organizations and some are for profit. You don’t think they could get more funding? No they’d rather have more tax payer dollars to do whatever they want at the school.

As do almost all W3 schools. And your point is...?

How are MOCO suburban rich schools applicable to DCPS average urban schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Charter supporters: which one of your schools has a life skills classroom? I'll wait. And MANY (not all, I realize) so called "highly regarded" charters have no self contained classrooms special ed classrooms at all.

If you're not going to educate all our kids, don't come at me with "it isn't fair."

There are self contained classrooms at my charter school. Why do you think there aren’t? Which school concerns you?

Special Ed teacher here. (have taught DCPS and Charters)

Segregated Special ed classrooms are NOT required to provide special education services, and generally not advised under most circumstances for children. At my current charter, students with IEPs are not segregated in full-time self contained classrooms. DCPS's self-contained segregated classrooms are rooms with 12 or less children and have multiple-grade levels in one room and receive interventions in one room; they exist with the intent of eventual integration for younger children or with documentation pipelining extreme cases toward more extensive or private placement.

The charter where I work achieves this by having more frequent pull outs for one-on one/ two on one interventions. Every child has a general classroom enrollment and IEP goals are integrated with grade level goals. The approach is just different. Not better or worse. DCPS varies from school to school and does the same thing at some schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t think so. Tell your charter board to increase teacher salaries if you don’t like current pay structures. Charter teachers should unionize if they want the collective bargaining power that the WTU has. Why on earth should they benefit from the DCPS union’s efforts if they choose not to unionize (MV aside)?

Some context for anyone who’s trying to figure out what this is about: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1109459.page

This is silly. Salaries can't be increased independent of funding. The salaries of the unionized charter school are lower than the other charters. It isn't that the union isn't effective, they just can't raise salaries to compete with other charters (or DCPS) without getting equivalent funding.

Charters choose to pay their teachers lower salaries in many cases. They want to be independent and therefore they choose how to allocate their budgets. They choose their staffing numbers, salaries, etc. Advocate with your charter leaders to increase teacher pay in their budgeting.

Clearly math isn’t your forte. There is a per pupil funding amount that public schools receive. They budget within that. They can move money around but with educator salaries gerald being a larger percentage of school budgets increases are capped by the per pupil amount. Unfortunately, just cutting doesn’t yield enough for decent salary increases when there are fixed costs like mortgages and essential like utilities, food, etc have risen rapidly.

Charters have rich donors, some are part of vast organizations and some are for profit. You don’t think they could get more funding? No they’d rather have more tax payer dollars to do whatever they want at the school.

As do almost all W3 schools. And your point is...?

How are MOCO suburban rich schools applicable to DCPS average urban schools?

DP, but W3 = Ward 3. In DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Charter supporters: which one of your schools has a life skills classroom? I'll wait. And MANY (not all, I realize) so called "highly regarded" charters have no self contained classrooms special ed classrooms at all.

If you're not going to educate all our kids, don't come at me with "it isn't fair."

There are self contained classrooms at my charter school. Why do you think there aren’t? Which school concerns you?

Special Ed teacher here. (have taught DCPS and Charters)

Segregated Special ed classrooms are NOT required to provide special education services, and generally not advised under most circumstances for children. At my current charter, students with IEPs are not segregated in full-time self contained classrooms. DCPS's self-contained segregated classrooms are rooms with 12 or less children and have multiple-grade levels in one room and receive interventions in one room; they exist with the intent of eventual integration for younger children or with documentation pipelining extreme cases toward more extensive or private placement.

The charter where I work achieves this by having more frequent pull outs for one-on one/ two on one interventions. Every child has a general classroom enrollment and IEP goals are integrated with grade level goals. The approach is just different. Not better or worse. DCPS varies from school to school and does the same thing at some schools.

This is not entirely accurate. Least restrictive environment IS required by law, and the LRE for some children may very well be a self-contained classroom. Some charters don’t offer this and *claim* inclusion in the gen Ed classroom is least restrictive when it may not be. The way you have described the intent of DCPS self-contained classrooms is also false. There are diploma track programs and there are high school certificate programs. The hope would be that students in the diploma track programs would eventually be able to join inclusion settings, however that is not a realistic expectation for certificate track students with severe disabilities. For example, the CES program is for students with an IQ <50. It’s not that they are pipelined into a more “extreme” or private placement; they simply remain in a CES classroom throughout their time with DCPS. Also, DCPS does NOT vary from school to school. The only thing that varies is which programs are at which schools, but those programs aren’t only for students at the schools with the programs, they are city-wide programs with feeder patterns. So for example, if you need a CES classroom but your IB school doesn’t have one, you would be placed at the school within your feeder pattern that does have one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t think so. Tell your charter board to increase teacher salaries if you don’t like current pay structures. Charter teachers should unionize if they want the collective bargaining power that the WTU has. Why on earth should they benefit from the DCPS union’s efforts if they choose not to unionize (MV aside)?

Some context for anyone who’s trying to figure out what this is about: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1109459.page

This is silly. Salaries can't be increased independent of funding. The salaries of the unionized charter school are lower than the other charters. It isn't that the union isn't effective, they just can't raise salaries to compete with other charters (or DCPS) without getting equivalent funding.

Charters choose to pay their teachers lower salaries in many cases. They want to be independent and therefore they choose how to allocate their budgets. They choose their staffing numbers, salaries, etc. Advocate with your charter leaders to increase teacher pay in their budgeting.

Clearly math isn’t your forte. There is a per pupil funding amount that public schools receive. They budget within that. They can move money around but with educator salaries gerald being a larger percentage of school budgets increases are capped by the per pupil amount. Unfortunately, just cutting doesn’t yield enough for decent salary increases when there are fixed costs like mortgages and essential like utilities, food, etc have risen rapidly.

Charters have rich donors, some are part of vast organizations and some are for profit. You don’t think they could get more funding? No they’d rather have more tax payer dollars to do whatever they want at the school.

As do almost all W3 schools. And your point is...?

My point is billionaire donors to charters just write a check and charters can spend that money however they want. The PTA at Ward 3 can’t increase teacher salaries. But you knew that already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t think so. Tell your charter board to increase teacher salaries if you don’t like current pay structures. Charter teachers should unionize if they want the collective bargaining power that the WTU has. Why on earth should they benefit from the DCPS union’s efforts if they choose not to unionize (MV aside)?

Some context for anyone who’s trying to figure out what this is about: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1109459.page

This is silly. Salaries can't be increased independent of funding. The salaries of the unionized charter school are lower than the other charters. It isn't that the union isn't effective, they just can't raise salaries to compete with other charters (or DCPS) without getting equivalent funding.

Charters choose to pay their teachers lower salaries in many cases. They want to be independent and therefore they choose how to allocate their budgets. They choose their staffing numbers, salaries, etc. Advocate with your charter leaders to increase teacher pay in their budgeting.

Clearly math isn’t your forte. There is a per pupil funding amount that public schools receive. They budget within that. They can move money around but with educator salaries gerald being a larger percentage of school budgets increases are capped by the per pupil amount. Unfortunately, just cutting doesn’t yield enough for decent salary increases when there are fixed costs like mortgages and essential like utilities, food, etc have risen rapidly.

Charters have rich donors, some are part of vast organizations and some are for profit. You don’t think they could get more funding? No they’d rather have more tax payer dollars to do whatever they want at the school.

As do almost all W3 schools. And your point is...?

My point is billionaire donors to charters just write a check and charters can spend that money however they want. The PTA at Ward 3 can’t increase teacher salaries. But you knew that already.

The "billionaire donor" line works great at a WTU meeting, but it isn't reality. But you knew that. None of the charter schools in DC are directly funded by billionaires. What you are suggesting would only be true if, for instance, Bill Gates opened a school. The fact that DeVoss and her friends advocate for charters does not make them primary funders. The Funding in DC for charters is per pupil. DC charters are simply not swimming in money. JKLM raise more money from the community than BASIS and Latin do. The "for profit" line is also irrelevant. Not for profit or for profit are simply tax categories. If you knew anything about the subject instead of cheap applause lines you'd realize that there are a great many "non-profits" with literally billions in assets under management. Some right here in DC. None of those runs a school.

This is a nuanced and complicated topic. There are a lot of valid arguments to be made on both sides of the discussion. Sadly, your cheap and meaningless talk track contributes nothing but misinformation and hyperbole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t think so. Tell your charter board to increase teacher salaries if you don’t like current pay structures. Charter teachers should unionize if they want the collective bargaining power that the WTU has. Why on earth should they benefit from the DCPS union’s efforts if they choose not to unionize (MV aside)?

Some context for anyone who’s trying to figure out what this is about: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1109459.page

This is silly. Salaries can't be increased independent of funding. The salaries of the unionized charter school are lower than the other charters. It isn't that the union isn't effective, they just can't raise salaries to compete with other charters (or DCPS) without getting equivalent funding.

Charters choose to pay their teachers lower salaries in many cases. They want to be independent and therefore they choose how to allocate their budgets. They choose their staffing numbers, salaries, etc. Advocate with your charter leaders to increase teacher pay in their budgeting.

Clearly math isn’t your forte. There is a per pupil funding amount that public schools receive. They budget within that. They can move money around but with educator salaries gerald being a larger percentage of school budgets increases are capped by the per pupil amount. Unfortunately, just cutting doesn’t yield enough for decent salary increases when there are fixed costs like mortgages and essential like utilities, food, etc have risen rapidly.

Charters have rich donors, some are part of vast organizations and some are for profit. You don’t think they could get more funding? No they’d rather have more tax payer dollars to do whatever they want at the school.

As do almost all W3 schools. And your point is...?

How are MOCO suburban rich schools applicable to DCPS average urban schools?

I giggled when I saw your reply to my post. Why are you on this forum or thread when you clearly know jack all about DC schools? And when I say "DC schools" I mean the ones in our 8 wards. And when I say W3, I mean the wealthiest in Ward 3.

I have this image of you as a teacher's union rep from NYC or somewhere else who desperately wants to support your kind, so much so that you won't let being completely ignorant of DC schools and DC get in your way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Charter supporters: which one of your schools has a life skills classroom? I'll wait. And MANY (not all, I realize) so called "highly regarded" charters have no self contained classrooms special ed classrooms at all.

If you're not going to educate all our kids, don't come at me with "it isn't fair."

There are self contained classrooms at my charter school. Why do you think there aren’t? Which school concerns you?

Special Ed teacher here. (have taught DCPS and Charters)

Segregated Special ed classrooms are NOT required to provide special education services, and generally not advised under most circumstances for children. At my current charter, students with IEPs are not segregated in full-time self contained classrooms. DCPS's self-contained segregated classrooms are rooms with 12 or less children and have multiple-grade levels in one room and receive interventions in one room; they exist with the intent of eventual integration for younger children or with documentation pipelining extreme cases toward more extensive or private placement.

The charter where I work achieves this by having more frequent pull outs for one-on one/ two on one interventions. Every child has a general classroom enrollment and IEP goals are integrated with grade level goals. The approach is just different. Not better or worse. DCPS varies from school to school and does the same thing at some schools.

This is not entirely accurate. Least restrictive environment IS required by law, and the LRE for some children may very well be a self-contained classroom. Some charters don’t offer this and *claim* inclusion in the gen Ed classroom is least restrictive when it may not be. The way you have described the intent of DCPS self-contained classrooms is also false. There are diploma track programs and there are high school certificate programs. The hope would be that students in the diploma track programs would eventually be able to join inclusion settings, however that is not a realistic expectation for certificate track students with severe disabilities. For example, the CES program is for students with an IQ <50. It’s not that they are pipelined into a more “extreme” or private placement; they simply remain in a CES classroom throughout their time with DCPS. Also, DCPS does NOT vary from school to school. The only thing that varies is which programs are at which schools, but those programs aren’t only for students at the schools with the programs, they are city-wide programs with feeder patterns. So for example, if you need a CES classroom but your IB school doesn’t have one, you would be placed at the school within your feeder pattern that does have one.

I’m a CES teacher, the IQ thing is n absolute lie and we do not categorize students that way even if you read it in the DSI handbook. Next the goal is to get them out of self-contained or a more restrictive placement, however yes some do just stay in CES.
DCPS absolutely varies from school to school and not all CES classrooms are equal, not sure who told you this lie.
I have had several privileged parent’s interview 4+ schools with CES. And we don’t take kids city wide, they live very close or as close as possible since surprise surprise NW doesn’t have many CES programs.

But your original point is true, charters get away with saying the inclusion model is the LRE and I have received student’s from charters - after the fiscal year starts of course so the charter gets the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Charter supporters: which one of your schools has a life skills classroom? I'll wait. And MANY (not all, I realize) so called "highly regarded" charters have no self contained classrooms special ed classrooms at all.

If you're not going to educate all our kids, don't come at me with "it isn't fair."

There are self contained classrooms at my charter school. Why do you think there aren’t? Which school concerns you?

Special Ed teacher here. (have taught DCPS and Charters)

Segregated Special ed classrooms are NOT required to provide special education services, and generally not advised under most circumstances for children. At my current charter, students with IEPs are not segregated in full-time self contained classrooms. DCPS's self-contained segregated classrooms are rooms with 12 or less children and have multiple-grade levels in one room and receive interventions in one room; they exist with the intent of eventual integration for younger children or with documentation pipelining extreme cases toward more extensive or private placement.

The charter where I work achieves this by having more frequent pull outs for one-on one/ two on one interventions. Every child has a general classroom enrollment and IEP goals are integrated with grade level goals. The approach is just different. Not better or worse. DCPS varies from school to school and does the same thing at some schools.

This is not entirely accurate. Least restrictive environment IS required by law, and the LRE for some children may very well be a self-contained classroom. Some charters don’t offer this and *claim* inclusion in the gen Ed classroom is least restrictive when it may not be. The way you have described the intent of DCPS self-contained classrooms is also false. There are diploma track programs and there are high school certificate programs. The hope would be that students in the diploma track programs would eventually be able to join inclusion settings, however that is not a realistic expectation for certificate track students with severe disabilities. For example, the CES program is for students with an IQ <50. It’s not that they are pipelined into a more “extreme” or private placement; they simply remain in a CES classroom throughout their time with DCPS. Also, DCPS does NOT vary from school to school. The only thing that varies is which programs are at which schools, but those programs aren’t only for students at the schools with the programs, they are city-wide programs with feeder patterns. So for example, if you need a CES classroom but your IB school doesn’t have one, you would be placed at the school within your feeder pattern that does have one.

I’m a CES teacher, the IQ thing is n absolute lie and we do not categorize students that way even if you read it in the DSI handbook. Next the goal is to get them out of self-contained or a more restrictive placement, however yes some do just stay in CES.
DCPS absolutely varies from school to school and not all CES classrooms are equal, not sure who told you this lie.
I have had several privileged parent’s interview 4+ schools with CES. And we don’t take kids city wide, they live very close or as close as possible since surprise surprise NW doesn’t have many CES programs.

But your original point is true, charters get away with saying the inclusion model is the LRE and I have received student’s from charters - after the fiscal year starts of course so the charter gets the money.

Ok but some charters are only 1 building and not a whole school system like DCPS. It’s not like they can send the kid to anny other campuses or school that have the facilities. There is no network.

Reality is if your kid is in small private school or small charter school, the abundance of services will not be there. No surprises here and families with these kids who do their homework know this.