State charter school statutes provide important background for this examination of the performance of charter schools in serving students with disabilities. We reviewed state statutes to identify the ways legislatures have directly addressed special education and students with disabilities. This review of charter school legislation will inform site selection for visits to a national sample of charter schools, ensuring that the schools visited represent diversity in regard to state characteristics. The review will also provide information useful for tailoring individual data collection protocols prior to each school visit. For interview protocols, the information here will allow refinement of standard questions and development of site-specific questions to reflect the legal environment in which each school operates.
Charter schools operate in widely different legal contexts in different states.
To establish the context for looking at special education provisions and to identify other statutory provisions that could have an impact on students with disabilities, we first looked broadly at the charter school statutes. We examined those elements in each state charter school statute that provide information about the legal status, authority, operational freedom, and funding sources of charter schools. This information provided a framework within which to identify specific provisions regarding students with disabilities. We then identified and examined the legislative provisions that specifically address students with disabilities or special education. In January and February 1998, we collected the state statutes.