BASIS: PCSB staff recommends conditional continuance due to SWD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What SN supports does BASIS allegedly fail to provide? From my experience, they provide a lot of organizational/executive functioning support, before and after school time to get help from individual teachers. The general structure of the school is helpful for kids with ASD or ADHD.

It doesn’t fail to provide anything. All the report said is that it should do a better job advertising to SN students and show what supports it provides. That’s it. It can (and will) still claim to be a very rigorous school that demands a lot of its students. Nothing will really change here. BASIS is a lottery school— if level 4 SN parents choose not to lottery in, that’s not the school’s fault.

+1. There's nothing showing that BASIS is not able to support SN kids. It's just showing that BASIS doesn't have as many as other schools. If BASIS can show that it has the supports and advertises them, it's not its fault if kids don't come. Now personally, I wouldn't send my SN kid there, because I know it's not a good fit for my kid. But that doesn't mean it isn't a good fit for others.

I feel like this is groundhog's day. Basis has an obligation to educate SN kids - it cannot just say "Whoops, bad fit!" The charter board instructed Basis to come up with a plan to recruit AND RETAIN more SN kids, and that is going to require devoting more resources to it. We can argue what the implication is about Basis's drasticall low numbers of SN kids, but I think most fair observers know it's because Basis has viewed itself as not having to make any accommodations and just relying on saying "not our niche" so that SN kids don't even enter the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What SN supports does BASIS allegedly fail to provide? From my experience, they provide a lot of organizational/executive functioning support, before and after school time to get help from individual teachers. The general structure of the school is helpful for kids with ASD or ADHD.

It doesn’t fail to provide anything. All the report said is that it should do a better job advertising to SN students and show what supports it provides. That’s it. It can (and will) still claim to be a very rigorous school that demands a lot of its students. Nothing will really change here. BASIS is a lottery school— if level 4 SN parents choose not to lottery in, that’s not the school’s fault.

+1. There's nothing showing that BASIS is not able to support SN kids. It's just showing that BASIS doesn't have as many as other schools. If BASIS can show that it has the supports and advertises them, it's not its fault if kids don't come. Now personally, I wouldn't send my SN kid there, because I know it's not a good fit for my kid. But that doesn't mean it isn't a good fit for others.

It also says in the report that BASIS' SN compliance is worse than most other charter schools. And it really perplexes me that a supposedly well-functioning school with not very many kids with SN can't manage to do this as well as other charters in this city.

It's not that hard to understand. They don't devote any resources to SN kids, and so the only SN kids who apply (and stay) are those that don't need many accomodations. This is an active choice by Basis and they're being called out for it (and rightly so.) There are no selective charters in DC, no matter how much Basis wishes there were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What SN supports does BASIS allegedly fail to provide? From my experience, they provide a lot of organizational/executive functioning support, before and after school time to get help from individual teachers. The general structure of the school is helpful for kids with ASD or ADHD.

It doesn’t fail to provide anything. All the report said is that it should do a better job advertising to SN students and show what supports it provides. That’s it. It can (and will) still claim to be a very rigorous school that demands a lot of its students. Nothing will really change here. BASIS is a lottery school— if level 4 SN parents choose not to lottery in, that’s not the school’s fault.

+1. There's nothing showing that BASIS is not able to support SN kids. It's just showing that BASIS doesn't have as many as other schools. If BASIS can show that it has the supports and advertises them, it's not its fault if kids don't come. Now personally, I wouldn't send my SN kid there, because I know it's not a good fit for my kid. But that doesn't mean it isn't a good fit for others.

It also says in the report that BASIS' SN compliance is worse than most other charter schools. And it really perplexes me that a supposedly well-functioning school with not very many kids with SN can't manage to do this as well as other charters in this city.

It's not that hard to understand. They don't devote any resources to SN kids, and so the only SN kids who apply (and stay) are those that don't need many accomodations. This is an active choice by Basis and they're being called out for it (and rightly so.) There are no selective charters in DC, no matter how much Basis wishes there were.

It's just not that cut and dried. Unlike the other DC charter schools, BASIS has permission from DCPCSB, the Mayor's office and the city council to reject social promotion. Per the rules of a negotiated agreement with the charter board in 2011, if a BASIS student can't pass all his or her end-of-year "comprehensive exam" in 6th, 7th and 8th grades, s/he can be required to repeat a grade. The exams are graded in Arizona. Hence, BASIS is essentially a selective charter, a unique program in that admins are not required to promote any of their students past 6th grade. There are ways and ways to select students in the DC charter domain, at least for high school. I'm willing to be that they're being called out for show, nothing more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What SN supports does BASIS allegedly fail to provide? From my experience, they provide a lot of organizational/executive functioning support, before and after school time to get help from individual teachers. The general structure of the school is helpful for kids with ASD or ADHD.

It doesn’t fail to provide anything. All the report said is that it should do a better job advertising to SN students and show what supports it provides. That’s it. It can (and will) still claim to be a very rigorous school that demands a lot of its students. Nothing will really change here. BASIS is a lottery school— if level 4 SN parents choose not to lottery in, that’s not the school’s fault.

+1. There's nothing showing that BASIS is not able to support SN kids. It's just showing that BASIS doesn't have as many as other schools. If BASIS can show that it has the supports and advertises them, it's not its fault if kids don't come. Now personally, I wouldn't send my SN kid there, because I know it's not a good fit for my kid. But that doesn't mean it isn't a good fit for others.

It also says in the report that BASIS' SN compliance is worse than most other charter schools. And it really perplexes me that a supposedly well-functioning school with not very many kids with SN can't manage to do this as well as other charters in this city.

It's not that hard to understand. They don't devote any resources to SN kids, and so the only SN kids who apply (and stay) are those that don't need many accomodations. This is an active choice by Basis and they're being called out for it (and rightly so.) There are no selective charters in DC, no matter how much Basis wishes there were.

It's just not that cut and dried. Unlike the other DC charter schools, BASIS has permission from DCPCSB, the Mayor's office and the city council to reject social promotion. Per the rules of a negotiated agreement with the charter board in 2011, if a BASIS student can't pass all his or her end-of-year "comprehensive exam" in 6th, 7th and 8th grades, s/he can be required to repeat a grade. The exams are graded in Arizona. Hence, BASIS is essentially a selective charter, a unique program in that admins are not required to promote any of their students past 6th grade. There are ways and ways to select students in the DC charter domain, at least for high school. I'm willing to be that they're being called out for show, nothing more.

That doesn't exempt BASIS from IDEA. And I question whether the rejection of "social promotion" can apply to all kids with IEPs anyway. If you think having their charter being placed at risk is "for show," I don't know what to tell you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What SN supports does BASIS allegedly fail to provide? From my experience, they provide a lot of organizational/executive functioning support, before and after school time to get help from individual teachers. The general structure of the school is helpful for kids with ASD or ADHD.

It doesn’t fail to provide anything. All the report said is that it should do a better job advertising to SN students and show what supports it provides. That’s it. It can (and will) still claim to be a very rigorous school that demands a lot of its students. Nothing will really change here. BASIS is a lottery school— if level 4 SN parents choose not to lottery in, that’s not the school’s fault.

+1. There's nothing showing that BASIS is not able to support SN kids. It's just showing that BASIS doesn't have as many as other schools. If BASIS can show that it has the supports and advertises them, it's not its fault if kids don't come. Now personally, I wouldn't send my SN kid there, because I know it's not a good fit for my kid. But that doesn't mean it isn't a good fit for others.

It also says in the report that BASIS' SN compliance is worse than most other charter schools. And it really perplexes me that a supposedly well-functioning school with not very many kids with SN can't manage to do this as well as other charters in this city.

It's not that hard to understand. They don't devote any resources to SN kids, and so the only SN kids who apply (and stay) are those that don't need many accomodations. This is an active choice by Basis and they're being called out for it (and rightly so.) There are no selective charters in DC, no matter how much Basis wishes there were.

It's just not that cut and dried. Unlike the other DC charter schools, BASIS has permission from DCPCSB, the Mayor's office and the city council to reject social promotion. Per the rules of a negotiated agreement with the charter board in 2011, if a BASIS student can't pass all his or her end-of-year "comprehensive exam" in 6th, 7th and 8th grades, s/he can be required to repeat a grade. The exams are graded in Arizona. Hence, BASIS is essentially a selective charter, a unique program in that admins are not required to promote any of their students past 6th grade. There are ways and ways to select students in the DC charter domain, at least for high school. I'm willing to be that they're being called out for show, nothing more.

That doesn't exempt BASIS from IDEA. And I question whether the rejection of "social promotion" can apply to all kids with IEPs anyway. If you think having their charter being placed at risk is "for show," I don't know what to tell you.

Well, I was kind of thinking it is "for show" because the actual requirements of the conditional renewal are pretty easy to meet. They have to submit a plan of improvement. But they don't have to actually improve. So I wouldn't say that this actually functionally threatens their charter, because I'm confident that BASID can put together a plan on paper. If the PCSB is going to actually demand improvement that might be different. But they aren't.

[Anonymous]

As the parent of a child with special needs, I think it’s obvious what needs to be done. ALL the SN kids need to lottery into Basis. And parents, be loud about what you expect. Make it clear that we understand the law and have the Weinfeld Group and Jake Gould on speed-dial. Check the paperwork twice. Eventually, you’ll either get private placement or the school will be forced to staff up and get a real SN team. Win-win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As the parent of a child with special needs, I think it’s obvious what needs to be done. ALL the SN kids need to lottery into Basis. And parents, be loud about what you expect. Make it clear that we understand the law and have the Weinfeld Group and Jake Gould on speed-dial. Check the paperwork twice. Eventually, you’ll either get private placement or the school will be forced to staff up and get a real SN team. Win-win.

Ha ha. If you're setting your sights on Lab, this isn't a bad plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What SN supports does BASIS allegedly fail to provide? From my experience, they provide a lot of organizational/executive functioning support, before and after school time to get help from individual teachers. The general structure of the school is helpful for kids with ASD or ADHD.

It doesn’t fail to provide anything. All the report said is that it should do a better job advertising to SN students and show what supports it provides. That’s it. It can (and will) still claim to be a very rigorous school that demands a lot of its students. Nothing will really change here. BASIS is a lottery school— if level 4 SN parents choose not to lottery in, that’s not the school’s fault.

+1. There's nothing showing that BASIS is not able to support SN kids. It's just showing that BASIS doesn't have as many as other schools. If BASIS can show that it has the supports and advertises them, it's not its fault if kids don't come. Now personally, I wouldn't send my SN kid there, because I know it's not a good fit for my kid. But that doesn't mean it isn't a good fit for others.

It also says in the report that BASIS' SN compliance is worse than most other charter schools. And it really perplexes me that a supposedly well-functioning school with not very many kids with SN can't manage to do this as well as other charters in this city.

It's not that hard to understand. They don't devote any resources to SN kids, and so the only SN kids who apply (and stay) are those that don't need many accomodations. This is an active choice by Basis and they're being called out for it (and rightly so.) There are no selective charters in DC, no matter how much Basis wishes there were.

It's just not that cut and dried. Unlike the other DC charter schools, BASIS has permission from DCPCSB, the Mayor's office and the city council to reject social promotion. Per the rules of a negotiated agreement with the charter board in 2011, if a BASIS student can't pass all his or her end-of-year "comprehensive exam" in 6th, 7th and 8th grades, s/he can be required to repeat a grade. The exams are graded in Arizona. Hence, BASIS is essentially a selective charter, a unique program in that admins are not required to promote any of their students past 6th grade. There are ways and ways to select students in the DC charter domain, at least for high school. I'm willing to be that they're being called out for show, nothing more.

That doesn't exempt BASIS from IDEA. And I question whether the rejection of "social promotion" can apply to all kids with IEPs anyway. If you think having their charter being placed at risk is "for show," I don't know what to tell you.

Well, I was kind of thinking it is "for show" because the actual requirements of the conditional renewal are pretty easy to meet. They have to submit a plan of improvement. But they don't have to actually improve. So I wouldn't say that this actually functionally threatens their charter, because I'm confident that BASID can put together a plan on paper. If the PCSB is going to actually demand improvement that might be different. But they aren't.

I think that's a pretty crazy assumption. here are t he actual requirments:

"By February 15, 2022, BASIS DC PCS shall:
a. Submit for DC PCSB’s review a draft recruitment and retention plan
targeted toward students with disabilities. At a minimum, the plan
must include specific strategies the school will use to 1) publicize its
program to the community as inclusive for all learners, and 2) target
recruitment efforts for families of students with disabilities.
b. Submit for DC PCSB’s review a draft special education plan in support
of an increased volume of students with disabilities in the school that
describes the academic programming, strategies, and personnel
required to ensure the school's capacity to offer special education
services across all settings and needs."

You think that they can just fail to implement the plan, not increase their SN enrollment at all? And the Charter Board will be ok with this?

[Anonymous]

Good luck with challenging. The path sounds arduous, expensive and incredibly time consuming.

With BASIS getting multiple seniors into MIT and Ivies each spring these days, admins aren't going to be sweating more robust SN accommodations, unless more SN families sue BASIS successfully. That's unlikely to happen and would take years if it does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What SN supports does BASIS allegedly fail to provide? From my experience, they provide a lot of organizational/executive functioning support, before and after school time to get help from individual teachers. The general structure of the school is helpful for kids with ASD or ADHD.

It doesn’t fail to provide anything. All the report said is that it should do a better job advertising to SN students and show what supports it provides. That’s it. It can (and will) still claim to be a very rigorous school that demands a lot of its students. Nothing will really change here. BASIS is a lottery school— if level 4 SN parents choose not to lottery in, that’s not the school’s fault.

+1. There's nothing showing that BASIS is not able to support SN kids. It's just showing that BASIS doesn't have as many as other schools. If BASIS can show that it has the supports and advertises them, it's not its fault if kids don't come. Now personally, I wouldn't send my SN kid there, because I know it's not a good fit for my kid. But that doesn't mean it isn't a good fit for others.

It also says in the report that BASIS' SN compliance is worse than most other charter schools. And it really perplexes me that a supposedly well-functioning school with not very many kids with SN can't manage to do this as well as other charters in this city.

It's not that hard to understand. They don't devote any resources to SN kids, and so the only SN kids who apply (and stay) are those that don't need many accomodations. This is an active choice by Basis and they're being called out for it (and rightly so.) There are no selective charters in DC, no matter how much Basis wishes there were.

It's just not that cut and dried. Unlike the other DC charter schools, BASIS has permission from DCPCSB, the Mayor's office and the city council to reject social promotion. Per the rules of a negotiated agreement with the charter board in 2011, if a BASIS student can't pass all his or her end-of-year "comprehensive exam" in 6th, 7th and 8th grades, s/he can be required to repeat a grade. The exams are graded in Arizona. Hence, BASIS is essentially a selective charter, a unique program in that admins are not required to promote any of their students past 6th grade. There are ways and ways to select students in the DC charter domain, at least for high school. I'm willing to be that they're being called out for show, nothing more.

That doesn't exempt BASIS from IDEA. And I question whether the rejection of "social promotion" can apply to all kids with IEPs anyway. If you think having their charter being placed at risk is "for show," I don't know what to tell you.

Well, I was kind of thinking it is "for show" because the actual requirements of the conditional renewal are pretty easy to meet. They have to submit a plan of improvement. But they don't have to actually improve. So I wouldn't say that this actually functionally threatens their charter, because I'm confident that BASID can put together a plan on paper. If the PCSB is going to actually demand improvement that might be different. But they aren't.

I think that's a pretty crazy assumption. here are t he actual requirments:

"By February 15, 2022, BASIS DC PCS shall:
a. Submit for DC PCSB’s review a draft recruitment and retention plan
targeted toward students with disabilities. At a minimum, the plan
must include specific strategies the school will use to 1) publicize its
program to the community as inclusive for all learners, and 2) target
recruitment efforts for families of students with disabilities.
b. Submit for DC PCSB’s review a draft special education plan in support
of an increased volume of students with disabilities in the school that
describes the academic programming, strategies, and personnel
required to ensure the school's capacity to offer special education
services across all settings and needs."

You think that they can just fail to implement the plan, not increase their SN enrollment at all? And the Charter Board will be ok with this?

I think they will implement the plan, weakly, and things won't improve much, and the PCSB will continue to pressure them. But I don't think the PCSB will actually shut them down because it would be a political nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What SN supports does BASIS allegedly fail to provide? From my experience, they provide a lot of organizational/executive functioning support, before and after school time to get help from individual teachers. The general structure of the school is helpful for kids with ASD or ADHD.

It doesn’t fail to provide anything. All the report said is that it should do a better job advertising to SN students and show what supports it provides. That’s it. It can (and will) still claim to be a very rigorous school that demands a lot of its students. Nothing will really change here. BASIS is a lottery school— if level 4 SN parents choose not to lottery in, that’s not the school’s fault.

+1. There's nothing showing that BASIS is not able to support SN kids. It's just showing that BASIS doesn't have as many as other schools. If BASIS can show that it has the supports and advertises them, it's not its fault if kids don't come. Now personally, I wouldn't send my SN kid there, because I know it's not a good fit for my kid. But that doesn't mean it isn't a good fit for others.

It also says in the report that BASIS' SN compliance is worse than most other charter schools. And it really perplexes me that a supposedly well-functioning school with not very many kids with SN can't manage to do this as well as other charters in this city.

It's not that hard to understand. They don't devote any resources to SN kids, and so the only SN kids who apply (and stay) are those that don't need many accomodations. This is an active choice by Basis and they're being called out for it (and rightly so.) There are no selective charters in DC, no matter how much Basis wishes there were.

It's just not that cut and dried. Unlike the other DC charter schools, BASIS has permission from DCPCSB, the Mayor's office and the city council to reject social promotion. Per the rules of a negotiated agreement with the charter board in 2011, if a BASIS student can't pass all his or her end-of-year "comprehensive exam" in 6th, 7th and 8th grades, s/he can be required to repeat a grade. The exams are graded in Arizona. Hence, BASIS is essentially a selective charter, a unique program in that admins are not required to promote any of their students past 6th grade. There are ways and ways to select students in the DC charter domain, at least for high school. I'm willing to be that they're being called out for show, nothing more.

That doesn't exempt BASIS from IDEA. And I question whether the rejection of "social promotion" can apply to all kids with IEPs anyway. If you think having their charter being placed at risk is "for show," I don't know what to tell you.

Well, I was kind of thinking it is "for show" because the actual requirements of the conditional renewal are pretty easy to meet. They have to submit a plan of improvement. But they don't have to actually improve. So I wouldn't say that this actually functionally threatens their charter, because I'm confident that BASID can put together a plan on paper. If the PCSB is going to actually demand improvement that might be different. But they aren't.

I think that's a pretty crazy assumption. here are t he actual requirments:

"By February 15, 2022, BASIS DC PCS shall:
a. Submit for DC PCSB’s review a draft recruitment and retention plan
targeted toward students with disabilities. At a minimum, the plan
must include specific strategies the school will use to 1) publicize its
program to the community as inclusive for all learners, and 2) target
recruitment efforts for families of students with disabilities.
b. Submit for DC PCSB’s review a draft special education plan in support
of an increased volume of students with disabilities in the school that
describes the academic programming, strategies, and personnel
required to ensure the school's capacity to offer special education
services across all settings and needs."

You think that they can just fail to implement the plan, not increase their SN enrollment at all? And the Charter Board will be ok with this?

Yes, I do. This is the charter board that's hasn't been held accountable for innumerable shady and questionable practices for more than 15 years now.

[Anonymous]

They'll increase SN enrollment, not SN 12th grade graduation. The plan will work.

SN kids who need serious accommodations seldom stick around for HS at BASIS anyway. That won't change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As the parent of a child with special needs, I think it’s obvious what needs to be done. ALL the SN kids need to lottery into Basis. And parents, be loud about what you expect. Make it clear that we understand the law and have the Weinfeld Group and Jake Gould on speed-dial. Check the paperwork twice. Eventually, you’ll either get private placement or the school will be forced to staff up and get a real SN team. Win-win.

You are disgusting, PP. "I don't want to pay to send my kid to Lab where they belong and would be most happy, so I will make them suffer through being at oh-so-awful-BASIS and then use a lawyer to make BASIS pay for Lab. Too bad if this takes away funds from other students who do not need to go to Lab but could really use the education they receive at BASIS to improve their lives."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good luck with challenging. The path sounds arduous, expensive and incredibly time consuming.

With BASIS getting multiple seniors into MIT and Ivies each spring these days, admins aren't going to be sweating more robust SN accommodations, unless more SN families sue BASIS successfully. That's unlikely to happen and would take years if it does.

or unless ... the entity responsible for oversight and compliance holds Basis accountable, which the Charter Board appears to be doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the parent of a child with special needs, I think it’s obvious what needs to be done. ALL the SN kids need to lottery into Basis. And parents, be loud about what you expect. Make it clear that we understand the law and have the Weinfeld Group and Jake Gould on speed-dial. Check the paperwork twice. Eventually, you’ll either get private placement or the school will be forced to staff up and get a real SN team. Win-win.

You are disgusting, PP. "I don't want to pay to send my kid to Lab where they belong and would be most happy, so I will make them suffer through being at oh-so-awful-BASIS and then use a lawyer to make BASIS pay for Lab. Too bad if this takes away funds from other students who do not need to go to Lab but could really use the education they receive at BASIS to improve their lives."

Lol. Out of all the disgusting posts here, you chose to bash a SN parent making a joke. Nice!