Fascinating thread. Lots of things going on here. I'll try to add my thoughts in an organized manner.

I, for one, am incredibly happy that BASIS is being investigated. It's about time. I appreciate that they were very clear about what their academic program would be like and I hope that the academic rigor that was clearly going to be a part of the curriculum discouraged parents of kids who would have extreme difficulty dealing with that rigor. I think that most of my fellow special ed parents are aware enough of their DC's strengths and weaknesses. I'm sure some families made the wrong decision, it can happen.

I do know for a fact, however, that BASIS set out to get rid of at least 2 special needs kids who could have done the work with some accommodations. They are both whip smart and, in different ways, were driven away from BASIS in a manner that was quite calculated. In one case it was endless refusal to do testing, establish a unified help plan (rather than just relying on the teachers each helping out if they could). In the other, BASIS admins specifically refused to follow the accommodations in the IEP. Flat out said they would not follow the legally mandated document. I was in the room and heard it all.

It doesn't matter if they claim not to have enough money or if they in fact don't have the budget for it. They could have chosen to be a private school. Charter schools don't get to pick and choose.

I also know of at least 2 solid students (not A's at BASIS mind you, but perfectly capable of B's and C's) who happen to be low income AA who were driven out. I wonder if BASIS expelled anyone. I don't know about it if they did. But at the 1st report card time, I knew those 2 students and those parents knew of at least 10 more who had received across the board failing grades. In 1 of the cases I sat with the report cards, letter telling the parents that their kid would fail the grade, CJ, and syllabi for all the classes. There were NO indications of any grade ever lower than one 67% in the CJ. No warnings of missed homework, no requests for a meeting, nothing. The report card was all F's. This student went for the after school tutoring every day. He reported to her mother that he was never approached by a teacher and that many of the teachers seemed to be working on their own grading and course prep. Now, he is shy, but surely if he were on the verge of failing every single course, 1 of the teachers would have thought to approach him and offer help. I know this kid to be excellent, hard working, from a great family who just happens to live in subsidized housing. He most likely would not have scored Proficient this year, after coming from an extremely mediocre DCPS, but he would have next year if given the chance. His parents summarily removed him and returned him to DCPS, as did a number of other parents, after the 1st report card (well after count/funding day). Oh, and when the mother went in to ask about the grades and the "this student will fail letter," she was told that it was a mistake and that all the grades would be changed immediately. OK, so they either were trying to weed out economically disadvantaged AA kids, or no one checks over the report cards before they go out.

DCPS was under a federal mandate for special ed violations for years. Everyone knows that. DCPS's lacking in this area is why a lot of parents look around for other options. Many of us don't have a lot of money so private-pay private school is not an option. We are currently paying almost $300 in co-pays a week for therapy. We are no longer middle class by Washington standards at all.

One can argue that there's no way many of the economically disadvantaged kids in the District have enough money proportioned for them to adequately meet their needs. Special ed is very complicated which is why there are specialists. The special ed coordinated BASIS had, at least at the beginning of the year, don't know what might have happened afterwards, had no special ed education, no special ed experience. So for some reason BASIS chose to pay a salary to a person who, in terms of resume, had no relevant experience for the job.

There are a lot of special ed kids for whom BASIS could be a great fit. Many of them appear to have stayed and done well. There are other kids for whom the BASIS curriculum is a perfect fit, but they need a few accommodations to make it work perfectly. I didn't ask to be blessed with a kid who fits in that category, but so it is. I would love to try to figure out an alternative, but we have had to make public schools work for us somehow up till now. We have thought of moving, but our jobs are centered here. We have thought of moving to the suburbs, but both kids would be devastated and the suburban schools have their own problems. At least in our neighborhood they have friends and I have a support network. We have already taken out money from our house. We have already cut our budget significantly from a budget that was already pretty tight.

I'm sure there are more things that I could say, but I get so angry when I think about what they almost got away with, I can't stand it. For the record, I do think that now that BASIS has been nailed for what they did, they are realizing very quickly that they have to clean up their act. Hence the new head of school, new special ed team. Kudos to them for recognizing that they messed up and starting to fix it. It doesn't do much for the kids I know personally who were damaged emotionally by their actions.

If a DCPS or charter school fails to provide the accommodations/services mandated in the IEP, the courts have a long history of having DCPS or charter pay the private school tuition at a school that can. So the school system will pays one way or another: The only question is how much. It's generally less expensive to mainstream w/accommodations than paying tuition at a SN school.

"unfunded mandate" does not apply to IEPs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Why would a charter need to accept special needs. It's like a magnet school needing to except special needs. Don't you need to pass a test or something.


I think this is correct but I believe since there are public funds the disabled and retarded need to be accommodated.


This is OT from the original theme of this thread, but I cannot ignore the above posts. Both of these posts have severe ignorance issues.

Charter schools are public schools and as such are required to provide FAPE for all students. (Free, Appropriate, Public, Education). They have to abide by all the accessibility laws that pertain to public schools. (eg IDEA). The Charter schools in DC are not magnet schools and do not require entrance tests. Many IEPs are for children with LDs, autism, ADHD... and require accommodations in a general education classroom and not a separate "self contained" classroom. Accommodations can include things like extra time on tests, reduced homework after mastery, a reader, a scribe, use of a calculator, class notes, special seating, smaller classroom for testing..... These are children who have the cognitive ability to access the curriculum but something else makes it harder for them. Schools are required to provide FAPE to children with ID (Intellectual Disability- use of the "R" word is considered extremely offensive), however, they may nor may be able to access the curriculum depending on the the level of ID. There are children with physical disabilities (eg deafness, blindness...) where a child would have additional accommodations. Many of the types of disabilities can be "co-morbid", which means a child could have more than one issue. For example, my DC had dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD.


From a practical side, parents of children with ID generally do NOT enroll their child in a school like BASIS, however, if they did, BASIS is required to provide the services the child needs to meet FAPE.


Many accommodations are reasonable and doable but others may be more difficult for schools to meet. Reader? Scribe? The money charters receive isn't remotely enough to pay for the staff wages of a reader or scribe. And also, it needs to be considered how extra time should be dealt with - as many schools have things going on in classrooms all day, those tests would likely have to be scheduled separately, outside of the rest of the school schedule - and that may necessitate that families need to be able to have some flexibility on their schedule as well.

I'm starting to think many posters on this thread are not actually from or in DC. The ignorance of the law here is astounding.

It doesn't matter if the accommodations are difficult to meet. All charter schools in DC, just like all public schools, are legally required to provide accommodations specified in an IEP.

Career govie here - I'm quite familiar with the law, but perhaps you are unfamiliar with the concept of "unfunded mandate". THAT is what the system is full of. I don't know where you are from but evidently you are unfamiliar with what comes around and goes around in DC. Go back to la-la land.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a charter need to accept special needs. It's like a magnet school needing to except special needs. Don't you need to pass a test or something.

I think this is correct but I believe since there are public funds the disabled and retarded need to be accommodated.

This is OT from the original theme of this thread, but I cannot ignore the above posts. Both of these posts have severe ignorance issues.

Charter schools are public schools and as such are required to provide FAPE for all students. (Free, Appropriate, Public, Education). They have to abide by all the accessibility laws that pertain to public schools. (eg IDEA). The Charter schools in DC are not magnet schools and do not require entrance tests. Many IEPs are for children with LDs, autism, ADHD... and require accommodations in a general education classroom and not a separate "self contained" classroom. Accommodations can include things like extra time on tests, reduced homework after mastery, a reader, a scribe, use of a calculator, class notes, special seating, smaller classroom for testing..... These are children who have the cognitive ability to access the curriculum but something else makes it harder for them. Schools are required to provide FAPE to children with ID (Intellectual Disability- use of the "R" word is considered extremely offensive), however, they may nor may be able to access the curriculum depending on the the level of ID. There are children with physical disabilities (eg deafness, blindness...) where a child would have additional accommodations. Many of the types of disabilities can be "co-morbid", which means a child could have more than one issue. For example, my DC had dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD.


From a practical side, parents of children with ID generally do NOT enroll their child in a school like BASIS, however, if they did, BASIS is required to provide the services the child needs to meet FAPE.

Many accommodations are reasonable and doable but others may be more difficult for schools to meet. Reader? Scribe? The money charters receive isn't remotely enough to pay for the staff wages of a reader or scribe. And also, it needs to be considered how extra time should be dealt with - as many schools have things going on in classrooms all day, those tests would likely have to be scheduled separately, outside of the rest of the school schedule - and that may necessitate that families need to be able to have some flexibility on their schedule as well.

My DC's public school handles it very well- not much additional cost. On test day, one of the existing aides or resource teachers comes to the class and brings DC to a smaller room for the test. He returns when he is done. Perhaps one hour or two hours extra per week. It doesn't cost the school much to do it. It is however required by law since it is in his IEP. The law says FAPE and least restrictive environment. They are obliged to follow the law.

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Why would a charter need to accept special needs. It's like a magnet school needing to except special needs. Don't you need to pass a test or something.


I think this is correct but I believe since there are public funds the disabled and retarded need to be accommodated.


This is OT from the original theme of this thread, but I cannot ignore the above posts. Both of these posts have severe ignorance issues.

Charter schools are public schools and as such are required to provide FAPE for all students. (Free, Appropriate, Public, Education). They have to abide by all the accessibility laws that pertain to public schools. (eg IDEA). The Charter schools in DC are not magnet schools and do not require entrance tests. Many IEPs are for children with LDs, autism, ADHD... and require accommodations in a general education classroom and not a separate "self contained" classroom. Accommodations can include things like extra time on tests, reduced homework after mastery, a reader, a scribe, use of a calculator, class notes, special seating, smaller classroom for testing..... These are children who have the cognitive ability to access the curriculum but something else makes it harder for them. Schools are required to provide FAPE to children with ID (Intellectual Disability- use of the "R" word is considered extremely offensive), however, they may nor may be able to access the curriculum depending on the the level of ID. There are children with physical disabilities (eg deafness, blindness...) where a child would have additional accommodations. Many of the types of disabilities can be "co-morbid", which means a child could have more than one issue. For example, my DC had dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD.


From a practical side, parents of children with ID generally do NOT enroll their child in a school like BASIS, however, if they did, BASIS is required to provide the services the child needs to meet FAPE.


Many accommodations are reasonable and doable but others may be more difficult for schools to meet. Reader? Scribe? The money charters receive isn't remotely enough to pay for the staff wages of a reader or scribe. And also, it needs to be considered how extra time should be dealt with - as many schools have things going on in classrooms all day, those tests would likely have to be scheduled separately, outside of the rest of the school schedule - and that may necessitate that families need to be able to have some flexibility on their schedule as well.

I'm starting to think many posters on this thread are not actually from or in DC. The ignorance of the law here is astounding.

It doesn't matter if the accommodations are difficult to meet. All charter schools in DC, just like all public schools, are legally required to provide accommodations specified in an IEP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a charter need to accept special needs. It's like a magnet school needing to except special needs. Don't you need to pass a test or something.

I think this is correct but I believe since there are public funds the disabled and retarded need to be accommodated.

This is OT from the original theme of this thread, but I cannot ignore the above posts. Both of these posts have severe ignorance issues.

Charter schools are public schools and as such are required to provide FAPE for all students. (Free, Appropriate, Public, Education). They have to abide by all the accessibility laws that pertain to public schools. (eg IDEA). The Charter schools in DC are not magnet schools and do not require entrance tests. Many IEPs are for children with LDs, autism, ADHD... and require accommodations in a general education classroom and not a separate "self contained" classroom. Accommodations can include things like extra time on tests, reduced homework after mastery, a reader, a scribe, use of a calculator, class notes, special seating, smaller classroom for testing..... These are children who have the cognitive ability to access the curriculum but something else makes it harder for them. Schools are required to provide FAPE to children with ID (Intellectual Disability- use of the "R" word is considered extremely offensive), however, they may nor may be able to access the curriculum depending on the the level of ID. There are children with physical disabilities (eg deafness, blindness...) where a child would have additional accommodations. Many of the types of disabilities can be "co-morbid", which means a child could have more than one issue. For example, my DC had dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD.


From a practical side, parents of children with ID generally do NOT enroll their child in a school like BASIS, however, if they did, BASIS is required to provide the services the child needs to meet FAPE.

Many accommodations are reasonable and doable but others may be more difficult for schools to meet. Reader? Scribe? The money charters receive isn't remotely enough to pay for the staff wages of a reader or scribe. And also, it needs to be considered how extra time should be dealt with - as many schools have things going on in classrooms all day, those tests would likely have to be scheduled separately, outside of the rest of the school schedule - and that may necessitate that families need to be able to have some flexibility on their schedule as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO!!! DOJ came to ALL charters because of the DCPS diabetes case. Who are you that you are casting such aspersions against one of the few charters that have always done sped right? DOE actually gave YY AN AWARD for how well it has done sped!

Not the poster you responded to but I am not a hater and you are not being truthful. YY has not always been compliant with sped. However, that does not mean that it is not doing what is required now. Shit happens and in new situations some things fall apart. In YY's case it was sped in YYs infancy years. The school has grown and so has YYs response to sped. But to say that it has always done well with sped is untruthful and there are former YY sped students who were affected. I am glad that you did not have a problem, but you can only speak for yourself, and perhaps what your child needed did not require much effort on the school's part.

Agree. The vast improvements in Sp Ed at YY occurred about 1.5 yrs ago after they moved into their permanent location. Prior to this, they had a deservingly dismal reputation and record for meeting the needs of their Sp Ed students.

Call it growing pains or whatever. Hopefully, BASIS will come around much sooner.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO!!! DOJ came to ALL charters because of the DCPS diabetes case. Who are you that you are casting such aspersions against one of the few charters that have always done sped right? DOE actually gave YY AN AWARD for how well it has done sped!

This has nothing to do with the diabetes case. As mentioned, YY turned around wonderfully. Had it not been for some very intense outside situations that may or may not have happened. It certainly was not moving towards being an inclusive environment. BUT IT IS NOW. The point being that this could prove beneficial for BASIS.

Can you give specifics as to how Yu Ying became more inclusive and how it was not inclusive?

Not PP but I have a child w/IEP at YY. They are wonderful. All kids with IEPs are mainstreamed. Services are push-in whenever possible not pull-out. There are sp ed teachers in both Chinese and English classrooms with a Mandarin speaking Sp Ed teacher in the Chinese classroom. Inclusive classrooms in K last year had a ratio of 17/18:3 and class size will remain the same throughout grades. We have used a well known Education Consultant to oversee DC's IEP since DC was eligible for one w/followups every year and according to him, YY is the best he's seen for inclusion in DC. Very happy with Sp Ed services at YY.

We have only been at YY since it's been inclusive so can't speak to when it was not.

OMG!! IT ALWAYS WAS INCLUSIVE!! In fact it is only in the last year or two that they started having self-contained for severe cases. Who is the idiot who is pretending they know???

What self-contained classrooms are you talking about? This is new to me.

There are no self contained classrooms at YY. None, nada, zip... All kids who have IEPs are mainstreamed.

PP is confused.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO!!! DOJ came to ALL charters because of the DCPS diabetes case. Who are you that you are casting such aspersions against one of the few charters that have always done sped right? DOE actually gave YY AN AWARD for how well it has done sped!

This has nothing to do with the diabetes case. As mentioned, YY turned around wonderfully. Had it not been for some very intense outside situations that may or may not have happened. It certainly was not moving towards being an inclusive environment. BUT IT IS NOW. The point being that this could prove beneficial for BASIS.

Can you give specifics as to how Yu Ying became more inclusive and how it was not inclusive?

Not PP but I have a child w/IEP at YY. They are wonderful. All kids with IEPs are mainstreamed. Services are push-in whenever possible not pull-out. There are sp ed teachers in both Chinese and English classrooms with a Mandarin speaking Sp Ed teacher in the Chinese classroom. Inclusive classrooms in K last year had a ratio of 17/18:3 and class size will remain the same throughout grades. We have used a well known Education Consultant to oversee DC's IEP since DC was eligible for one w/followups every year and according to him, YY is the best he's seen for inclusion in DC. Very happy with Sp Ed services at YY.

We have only been at YY since it's been inclusive so can't speak to when it was not.

OMG!! IT ALWAYS WAS INCLUSIVE!! In fact it is only in the last year or two that they started having self-contained for severe cases. Who is the idiot who is pretending they know???

What self-contained classrooms are you talking about? This is new to me.

Anonymous wrote:NO!!! DOJ came to ALL charters because of the DCPS diabetes case. Who are you that you are casting such aspersions against one of the few charters that have always done sped right? DOE actually gave YY AN AWARD for how well it has done sped!

Not the poster you responded to but I am not a hater and you are not being truthful. YY has not always been compliant with sped. However, that does not mean that it is not doing what is required now. Shit happens and in new situations some things fall apart. In YY's case it was sped in YYs infancy years. The school has grown and so has YYs response to sped. But to say that it has always done well with sped is untruthful and there are former YY sped students who were affected. I am glad that you did not have a problem, but you can only speak for yourself, and perhaps what your child needed did not require much effort on the school's part.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a charter need to accept special needs. It's like a magnet school needing to except special needs. Don't you need to pass a test or something.

I think this is correct but I believe since there are public funds the disabled and retarded need to be accommodated.

This is OT from the original theme of this thread, but I cannot ignore the above posts. Both of these posts have severe ignorance issues.

Charter schools are public schools and as such are required to provide FAPE for all students. (Free, Appropriate, Public, Education). They have to abide by all the accessibility laws that pertain to public schools. (eg IDEA). The Charter schools in DC are not magnet schools and do not require entrance tests. Many IEPs are for children with LDs, autism, ADHD... and require accommodations in a general education classroom and not a separate "self contained" classroom. Accommodations can include things like extra time on tests, reduced homework after mastery, a reader, a scribe, use of a calculator, class notes, special seating, smaller classroom for testing..... These are children who have the cognitive ability to access the curriculum but something else makes it harder for them. Schools are required to provide FAPE to children with ID (Intellectual Disability- use of the "R" word is considered extremely offensive), however, they may nor may be able to access the curriculum depending on the the level of ID. There are children with physical disabilities (eg deafness, blindness...) where a child would have additional accommodations. Many of the types of disabilities can be "co-morbid", which means a child could have more than one issue. For example, my DC had dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD.


From a practical side, parents of children with ID generally do NOT enroll their child in a school like BASIS, however, if they did, BASIS is required to provide the services the child needs to meet FAPE.

Anonymous wrote:Why would a charter need to accept special needs. It's like a magnet school needing to except special needs. Don't you need to pass a test or something.

I think this is correct but I believe since there are public funds the disabled and retarded need to be accommodated.

You are confusing resource room with self-contained classrooms. There are no self-contained classrooms at YY.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO!!! DOJ came to ALL charters because of the DCPS diabetes case. Who are you that you are casting such aspersions against one of the few charters that have always done sped right? DOE actually gave YY AN AWARD for how well it has done sped!

This has nothing to do with the diabetes case. As mentioned, YY turned around wonderfully. Had it not been for some very intense outside situations that may or may not have happened. It certainly was not moving towards being an inclusive environment. BUT IT IS NOW. The point being that this could prove beneficial for BASIS.

Can you give specifics as to how Yu Ying became more inclusive and how it was not inclusive?

Not PP but I have a child w/IEP at YY. They are wonderful. All kids with IEPs are mainstreamed. Services are push-in whenever possible not pull-out. There are sp ed teachers in both Chinese and English classrooms with a Mandarin speaking Sp Ed teacher in the Chinese classroom. Inclusive classrooms in K last year had a ratio of 17/18:3 and class size will remain the same throughout grades. We have used a well known Education Consultant to oversee DC's IEP since DC was eligible for one w/followups every year and according to him, YY is the best he's seen for inclusion in DC. Very happy with Sp Ed services at YY.

We have only been at YY since it's been inclusive so can't speak to when it was not.

OMG!! IT ALWAYS WAS INCLUSIVE!! In fact it is only in the last year or two that they started having self-contained for severe cases. Who is the idiot who is pretending they know???

You need to calm down and improve your reading comprehension. I'm not aware of any "self-contained" classrooms but my kid is not severe.

YY does not have self contained classrooms for SN students.