Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Educating Students with Disabilities in Charter Schools in the State of Connecticut. Inequity and Ambiguity Breed Anxiety
Author: National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools (NCSECS)
Date: 2020-02-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Students with Disabilities,Charter Schools,Public Education,Educational Equity (Finance),State Legislation,Educational Legislation,Educational Finance,School Districts,Access to Education,Urban Schools,Equal Education,Special Education,Enrollment Trends,Demography,Academic Achievement,Federal Legislation,Governance,Special Education Teachers,Teacher Salaries

The challenges associated with educating students with disabilities in charter schools in Connecticut are symptoms of two broader issues--the state's inequitable public education funding system and problematic ambiguity in the state charter law. Connecticut is a state of haves and have nots, and effectively advocating for more equitable funding statewide is a herculean task that cannot be achieved without the partnership of diverse coalitions. Compounding this inequity, charter schools, largely located in urban districts, must navigate ambiguity in the state charter law while fighting with cash-strapped districts in order to provide special education and related services to their students with disabilities. In practice, charter schools must navigate somewhat tenuous relationships with nexus districts (i.e., the districts of residence assigned responsibility for the provision of special education in the Connecticut charter statute) to ensure that students with disabilities can have ready access to charter schools equipped to provide special education and related services. The state's public education funding system and the state's facilitation of functional charter-district relationships are in dire need of focused attention. To address the complexities that make it difficult for charter operators to develop robust supports and services for students with a wide range of disabilities, charter school leaders need additional guidance from the Connecticut State Department of Education, transparency related to how the construct of &quot;reasonable cost&quot; is being operationalized across the state, and technical support to broker better relationships with nexus districts. However, while these technical fixes may address some problems in the near-term, fundamental changes to the state education funding system are required to better position all urban districts in Connecticut to effectively educate students with disabilities for the foreseeable future. Contributing to the challenges is the practical reality that charter schools in Connecticut represent a small constituency and the issue of special education lacks clear champions in the state legislature, which makes meaningful change to either funding or policy related to special education in charter schools difficult. Anticharter sentiment among Democrats is increasing at the national level, which may make legislative change even more challenging. For charter schools to successfully live up to their potential to serve all students, a variety of stakeholders will need to advocate together for clear and robust state guidance.