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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Basis has a model that is demanding and challenging for ANY child, whether with disabilities or no.  But that's their model, like it or not - and I don't think it will change.  [/b]They already have a half dozen or more other schools already operating on this model.

Our child has disabilities but is very bright and is very highly functioning so it hasn't been an issue for us, DC is thriving at Basis.  I know of several other kids with disabilities who are also doing extremely well there, because they are bright and highly functioning.  But, it entails hours of work after school and on weekends to keep up.

It's individual decisions but Basis isn't for everyone.  Many kids without disabilities will wash out because it's too demanding and challenging - and it will be even more hard for some of the kids with disabilities.  IEPs and 504s are fine and reasonable accommodations are fine but if the expectation is that the curriculum or model should change, or that it should be any less demanding, I don't think that will happen, since they already have a half dozen or more schools operating on this same model.  I think Basis would sooner pick up stakes and move elsewhere.  And sadly, that's what some would sooner have them do - and there would be nothing academically equivalent to replace it.
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I read things like this and I just shudder.  It's as though you think a public school can decide it's just not going to serve children with special needs because "it's their model."  Since when does a model trump federal law?  I have to wonder what it will take for some local civil rights lawyers and/or education advocates to take a serious look at this school and respond accordingly.  There has to be something one can do to facilitate that...[/quote]

That's nonsense.  They do serve children with special needs - I know for a fact that many of the special needs students are doing just fine - ours is.  To make a broad accusation like that is outrageous and baseless, unless you have evidence and have personally met with every special needs family there - and I'm pretty sure you've never talked to us and some of the other sn families that we know.

So you "shudder" at the fact that a school would want to offer a rigorous curriculum?   I shudder at the fact that most schools DON'T offer a sufficiently rigorous and challenging curriculum.  [b]Nobody is forcing anyone to go to Basis[/b] - there are lots of choices out there that would meet your evident desire for a less demanding curriculum.  Civil rights come into play when you have no choices, when you are forced into something unacceptable.  But that's definitely not the case here - there are a wealth of choices in this city, where it comes to schools that don't offer as much challenge.  We on the other hand have vastly fewer choices available to us, since we DO want challenging academics.  And here you want to take our choices away?  What about our civil rights that you seem to want to trample all over?  FAPE applies to us as well, it's not a one-way-street to be abused by just one set of interests at the expense of all others.[/quote]

Actually you have this all backwards.   No one is forced to go to BASIS but anyone can choose to go to BASIS.  That is the point of a charter school.  Equal access to everyone.  It isn't incumbent upon the student to make a public school work for them but incumbent upon the school to make it work for all students.  BASIS is great and perhaps, in the DC setting, should have opened as a private school. They chose to open as a charter school which means they accept the students regardless of ability, want of a rigorous education, parent involvement, previous school ability to educate properly, etc.

Challenging academics isn't a civil right.  [/quote]

No, I think YOUR view is entirely backward.  Yes, it's YOUR choice - but that doesn't mean you pick any school and force it to fit your expectations, instead you pick a school that already IS a fit for your expectations - particularly that we have dozens and dozens of schools to pick from.

By your backward worldview, evidently it would be appropriate to send a kid with no disabilities to St. Colettas - and then demand they accelerate him with Algebra I in 5th grade like they do in Basis.  Or, to send a kid to Carlos Rosario and demand Mandarin immersion.  Your view of the world makes ZERO sense.  Whatsoever.

Frankly, your view of the world is far more abusive and destructive to the public school ecosystem than anything else going on in these threads.[/quote]

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