Bill Introduced Today To Get Rid Of Charter School Enrollment Preference #netde #edude

They sure are working fast down in Legislative Hall today.  Darryl Scott is not seeking re-election so I applaud his desire for charter schools to stop cherry-picking who they want at their schools.  I’ve been writing about this topic a lot recently, and my next post shows exactly why it is a disgusting practice.

Section 1.  Amend § 403, Title 14 of the Delaware Code by making deletions as shown by strike through and insertions as shown by underline as follows:

§ 403. Pupil application; withdrawal.

(a) Any parent of a school age child may apply to enroll that parent’s own child in a school or program in a receiving local education agency by submitting a written application, on a standard form provided by the Department of Education, to the Department of Education or to the receiving district and to the district of residence on or before the second Wednesday in January for enrollment during the following school year, except that a parent may apply to a receiving district until the first day of the school year for enrollment in a kindergarten program during that school year. The Department of Education shall distribute applications to the appropriate receiving local education agency no later than 10 working days after the application deadlines set forth in this subsection. Receiving districts may require the submission of information beyond that contained in the standard form provided that it requires the submission of the same information by the parents of children residing in the attendance zone for the school. Vocational technical districts may also require information that substantiates a student’s eligibility to enter their applied grade level and an interest or designation of ordered interest in specific career and technical education (CTE) fields. Notwithstanding the requirements of this subsection, charter schools may accept applications submitted after the second Wednesday in January.

Section 2.  Amend § 405, Title 14 of the Delaware Code by making deletions as shown by strike through and insertions as shown by underline as follows:

§ 405. Criteria for approval or disapproval.

(a) Each receiving district receiving local educational agency shall adopt and make available a policy regarding the order in which applications for enrollment pursuant to this chapter shall be considered and the criteria by which such applications shall be evaluated. The criteria should outline the procedures for lottery when more applications are received than choice seats available. Those procedures may not include a ranking of applicants based on test scores, grades, discipline infractions, or any other academic or behavioral criteria, but may allow for separate lotteries for specific career and technical education fields.

Section 3.  Amend § 506, Title 14 of the Delaware Code by making insertions as shown by underlining and deletions as shown by strike through as follows:

§ 506 Restrictions.

(b) Preferences in student admissions may be given to:

(1) Siblings of students currently enrolled at the school;

(2) Students attending an existing public school converted to charter status. Parents of students at a school converted to charter status shall be provided with a plan the district will use to address the educational needs of students who will not be attending the charter school;

(3) Students enrolling in a new (nonconverted) charter school may be given preference under the following circumstances as long as the school has described its preferences in the school’s charter:

a. Students residing within a 5-mile radius of the school;

b. a. Students residing within the regular school district in which the school is located;

c. Students who have a specific interest in the school’s teaching methods, philosophy, or educational focus;

d. b. Students who are at risk of academic failure;

e. c.  Children of persons employed on a permanent basis for at least 30.0 hours per week during the school year by the charter school.

(4)  Children of a school’s founders, so long as they constitute no more than 5% of the school’s total student population. For the purposes of this paragraph “founder” shall not include anyone whose sole significant contribution to the school was monetary, but otherwise shall be determined by the founding Board of Directors subject to Department of Education regulations.

Section 4.  The effective date of this Act shall be November 1, 2014.

 

SYNOPSIS

This bill eliminates the ability of charter schools to give an enrollment preference to students who have a specific interest in the school’s teaching methods, philosophy, or educational focus, or who are within a five-mile radius. It also requires that admission to vocational-technical high schools be determined by a lottery system.