Questions about starting up a charter school

[Anonymous]

How hard is it? How much money do you need? Can it be designed primarily to serve special needs kids but also open to neurotypical kids (like Bridges but for older kids)? How long is the process, pretending that it goes relatively smoothly? Am I crazy?

[Anonymous]

Yes. You are crazy.
A) to think about starting a charter in DC
B) to solicit advice from the other crazies on DCUM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. You are crazy.
A) to think about starting a charter in DC
B) to solicit advice from the other crazies on DCUM

+1

[Anonymous]

It's not crazy, but do your research. And by research, I don't mean asking a crew of anonymous posters on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Go to Focus.org for the basics.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure that a school that focuses on Special Needs kids is the answer for the SN education problem. Right now we have more and more kids going to more restrictive environments instead of addressing the problems of providing a proper inclusive environment.
Also, there is no way to do screening for kids prior to admission. In other words, you can't do preferential admissions for SN vs. NT kids.
Third, make sure you take a long, hard look at St. Coletta's before embarking on the route to SN charters for older kids. You may change your mind knowing that you will need to be levels 1-4 if you are going to claim to be fully inclusive. Not sure if that is what you have in mind.

Finally, prepare to age 10 years for every one year you put into getting a new school up and running. Prepare to have full-time child care lined up for your family. Prepare to work 60-70 hour weeks for 3-5 years, minimum. Prepare for failure, because it is waiting around every corner and you need to have a plan for all of it. Prepare to use up all of your contacts and burn people out as you go through the first couple of years of school. Be prepared for the false friends who want to get in on it. Be prepared to lose these people.

If this doesn't scare you, then you may have what it takes. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to Focus.org for the basics.

+1, they pretty much have the lock on starting new charters. That's good and bad. St. Coletta's is not a good example, b/c they are in a special category, plus they take severely SN, you may not want the full spectrum.

It's very hard to start a charter right now. The finances alone will give you pause. It used to be very easy, but with so many issues, it is now much harder.

[Anonymous]

You don't get to choose the level of needs you serve. That is a common misconception in charter schools. Techically, if you are an LEA (do your own special ed services apart from DCPS) then you are required to offer a full continuum of services. The fact that 90% of the charters do so poorly is a testment to how ineffective OSSE is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't get to choose the level of needs you serve. That is a common misconception in charter schools. Techically, if you are an LEA (do your own special ed services apart from DCPS) then you are required to offer a full continuum of services. The fact that 90% of the charters do so poorly is a testment to how ineffective OSSE is.

You can choose to focus solely on SN. A few schools have done that, although they have not been successful. The Uniform Per Student Funding Formula is much higher to SNs, especially depending on how severe the student is. If you open a mainstream charter, you are required to take SN students, although oddly, the charters don't seem to get a lot of them. My son does have an IEP at Cap City and we've been pleased.