Reply to Do charters really differ that much from regular public schools?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think that there may be differences in how charters approach special needs kids based upon how the funding works.

My understanding is that our charter school receives extra funding for each child that has an IEP. So, they receive a per pupil allocation for all kids. And, then for special needs kids, the per pupil allocation is higher because those kids require more resources. We have seen that our charter is very open to SN kids and works hard to serve their needs. (FWIW this school is not Bridges or Creative Minds which have a specific mandate in that area).

I am not familiar with the funding at DCPS. But in the special needs world, there is a lot of discussion of 'unfunded mandates' for public schools and fighting to get services for your child's legitimate special needs. My sister, who works in this area, says it is usually MUCH harder to get an IEP than it was for us to get one for our dyslexic kid at a charter school. It seems that the DCPS schools receive an overall budget that they then allocate for different programs(?). So, if they have more SN kids, they don't necessarily get a bigger SpEd budget?

The reason that this makes a difference is that I see higher % SpEd in a lot of the charters that I have looked at compared to highly regarded DCPS schools. I think that it might be that the DCPS schools are less likely to 'see' legitimate special needs because they don't necessarily get more funding to meet those needs. [/quote]

Your assumption about funding is somewhat incorrect. Each school gets additional funding based on the number and type of Sped students enrolled. The problem with the budget process, though is that the budget is done based on prior year's enrollment, so if there is a significant change in population or the needs of the existing population, the can cause a budget disconnect.[/quote]

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