Basis PCS runs afoul with the Charter Board over special education instruction

[Anonymous]

Charters get more funds per SN students than for students who are not. I forget the exact amount but it's several thousand dollars more per student. Of course it's not anywhere the amount that DCPS spends per student, SN or not.

[Anonymous]

How is the disparity of how much more per student DCPS gets justifiable?

And how is it justifiable that DCPS is not being held to scrutiny given they just ship SN students elsewhere?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is the disparity of how much more per student DCPS gets justifiable?

And how is it justifiable that DCPS is not being held to scrutiny given they just ship SN students elsewhere?

DCPS pays to "ship SN students elsewhere." If a school system cannot provide a "free and appropriate public education" (FAPE), they have to bear the cost of providing the education elsewhere under IDEA, federal law. For DCPS, it means paying the tuition of SN students at SN private schools and providing transportation. It is very expensive. DCPS has historically been terrible at providing FAPE for SN students so a huge portion of DCPS budget has been used to pay for private SN schools. DC in the past two yrs have been trying very hard not to pay and to overhaul DCPS to provide SN education in-house.

[Anonymous]

Off the top of my head, DCPS spends 35k per student. Charters get 13k per student and the student allotment is dependent on the actual # of students on count day.

DCPS gets their $$ based on estimates and they don't have to return anything for over estimating enrollment.

[Anonymous]

So is this the new plan -- DCPS fails SN students badly within their own system, denies these students private placements, shuffles them off to charters and then cries foul when the less-experienced-with-DC-bureaucracy and less-funded-by-design charters have difficulty serving these same students? Typical DC government behavior. Shift the blame and take the cash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is this the new plan -- DCPS fails SN students badly within their own system, denies these students private placements, shuffles them off to charters and then cries foul when the less-experienced-with-DC-bureaucracy and less-funded-by-design charters have difficulty serving these same students? Typical DC government behavior. Shift the blame and take the cash.

DCPS doesn't oversee charter schools. They fall under the PCSB. Pretty amazing that they investigated this so quickly. They generally try to work with the schools which is great. I can't think of one school where they have stepped in the first year with these sorts of troubles. Typically it is monetary problems or drastic score problems. Hopefully this will help Basis solve this issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Off the top of my head, DCPS spends 35k per student. Charters get 13k per student and the student allotment is dependent on the actual # of students on count day.

DCPS gets their $$ based on estimates and they don't have to return anything for over estimating enrollment.

Those numbers are not correct. For facilities:

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-08-21/local/35491710_1_charter-sector-charter-enrollment-charter-schools

"The District is spending $5,986 per student this year for construction and renovation of (DCPS) buildings. Charter schools, not included in the capital budget, received $3,000 per student to lease or purchase buildings"

For instruction, it is much harder to see the disparity because of the complications of special education spending. But according to the Walton Foundation (admittedly, a very charter friendly organization), the total (including facilities), was $29,000 per pupil for DCPS and $16,000 for charters.

http://wff.cotcdn.rockfishhosting.com/documents/65c49fec-da6b-4124-ac47-1f04186644e1.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not so.
My ELL child was struggling in his English language class, and the teacher was totally oblivious to the fact he was not understanding the material. During a meeting she simply told us she had no experience with ELL students. After almost 3 months of meeting with admin, with the help of an inside person, my child was finally placed with another classroom teacher 2 years below grade level, who proved to be excellent and helped my child with English language skills. This past year, the school did not have anything close to Read 180, which is the norm in middle schools. I truly hope BASIS hires a remedial English teacher.

Why don't you pay for remedial help yourself or transfer your kid? Duh! I wouldn't leave my child's education up to a public school system who's not doing it right. Sure, they should be, but while that is stalemated what's happening to your kid. No way would I just sit pissed off while my child wasn't served. What did you do, PP? Waiting for the government to do right by your kid is time wasted. FWIW- I have a ELL kid (adopted) who was doing poorly in a DC charter. The services were non-existent. Guess what? I got my child outside help. He's better off now. Stop waiting for the world to hand you a better way for child. Hand yourself a better way. Also, Basis is hard as hell. Not for everyone. A lot of kids are not proper fits. That's the truth. Just cause DCPS sucks, don't expect Basis to be a fix-all. It's too intense for many kids.

Wow, so much is wrong about your post. You are unbelievable. I am assuming that because your child is adopted and ELL you had at a minimum 30K to pursue an international adoption. Therefore, you have disposable income to get your child outside help. Perhaps the PP that you are lambasting do not have that kind of money. Basis is a public school receiving public funds and is required by law to provide for the services the PPs child requires. She/he is not waiting for the world to hand her child a better way. She is demanding that Basis follow the law and provide the requisite services mandated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is this the new plan -- DCPS fails SN students badly within their own system, denies these students private placements, shuffles them off to charters and then cries foul when the less-experienced-with-DC-bureaucracy and less-funded-by-design charters have difficulty serving these same students? Typical DC government behavior. Shift the blame and take the cash.

I don't think there is a conspiracy at DCPS -- at least not one that is financially motivated.

DCPS gets additional funds for the special ed services it provides, but special ed services are not a profit center. The special ed funding merely serves to sustain the special ed sub-bureaucracy of DCPS.

The large number of special ed children in DCPS (18%) bloats the DCPS budget and costs taxpayers millions (billions?), but the money is probably not being siphoned off. On the contrary, the siphoning probably goes the other way; some amount of "normal ed" money is probably diverted to provide special ed services that are not reimbursed, e.g., when a 50% special ed teacher spends more than 50% of his/her time with special ed students.

When a special ed child leaves DCPS and enrolls in a charter, DCPS does not benefit financially. The DCPS budget is reduced by a certain amount and the charter school's budget is increased by a certain amount. Interestingly, on average the DCPS budget is reduced by substantially more than the charter school's budget is increased, resulting in a net benefit to taxpayers.

If we assume that there is no wide-spread fraud at DCPS to inflate the cost of special ed services, the lower reimbursements that charter schools receive for special ed services result in additional siphoning of "normal ed" funds for special ed.

[Anonymous]

The filing and record-keeping problems are not simply issues of organization. Records of IEP and 504 meetings are essential to ensuring that students get continuity in their supports from year to year, and that the entire teaching team is aware of the individual student's needs and strengths. The PCSB was right to point out that the deficiencies on these points are signs of trouble--pointing to an administration that has not thought through or planned for their SPED students.

[Anonymous]

DCPS gets far more funding per student overall - and rather than deal with special needs students, they shuttle them all off elsewhere... Seems to me the focus on how charters deal with special needs students is a deflection from the far bigger problems in DCPS. From what previous posters have said, it's pretty evident that charters do not even get anywhere near as much money to even do what DCPS does (which is, to push special needs kids off on to charters and out of state schools)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Off the top of my head, DCPS spends 35k per student. Charters get 13k per student and the student allotment is dependent on the actual # of students on count day.

DCPS gets their $$ based on estimates and they don't have to return anything for over estimating enrollment.

Those numbers are not correct. For facilities:

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-08-21/local/35491710_1_charter-sector-charter-enrollment-charter-schools

"The District is spending $5,986 per student this year for construction and renovation of (DCPS) buildings. Charter schools, not included in the capital budget, received $3,000 per student to lease or purchase buildings"

For instruction, it is much harder to see the disparity because of the complications of special education spending. But according to the Walton Foundation (admittedly, a very charter friendly organization), the total (including facilities), was $29,000 per pupil for DCPS and $16,000 for charters.

http://wff.cotcdn.rockfishhosting.com/documents/65c49fec-da6b-4124-ac47-1f04186644e1.pdf

OK, so it's $35K per student in DCPS and $19K in charters. It doesn't change the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OK, so it's $35K per student in DCPS and $19K in charters. It doesn't change the point.

Agreed, the disparity is very stark. I think the main complication is the significantly higher percentage of SN kids in DCPS, and the higher percentage of more severe SN of those kids. The funding is tied to all of that. But you are right, the disparity is fundamentally unfair, as that article in the Post makes clear.

[Anonymous]

"Construction" - charters don't get a nice hefty facilities budget, let alone access to city properties. Many of them struggle to make do in cramped incubators. Yet more disparity.