Special Needs Parents of Delaware: The Delaware DOE has just released their September 30th Annual Enrollment Unit Count for every single public school in Delaware, including charters and vocational schools. The unit counts are based on the following categories: regular students, basic special education and regular students in K-3, basic special education in 4-12, intensive special education in K-12, and complex special education in K-12. To qualify as special education in this report, a student with a disability must have an Individualized Education Plan.
If you wanted to see how many special needs students go to the priority schools, this is your chance. If you wanted to choice your child out to a charter and he/she is a student with disabilities, you might want to take a careful look at which charters really don’t cater to children with special needs. The report can be read here:
How did the charter schools do with special ed this year? Did they learn some lessons from last year, or are they still around the same amounts? Or did they decrease? With a state average around 13.5%, any charter below 10% of their population being special education really needs to stop the enrollment preference! If any of the schools below score below 7%, I put them in bold for really not doing a good job at acquiring special education students, whether they were up from last years numbers or not. For the new charters, I’m going to leave them alone this year, but I really hope to see an increase in their statistics next year.
*Academia Antonia Alonso: 2 out of 221, .9% New Charter School
Academy of Dover: 33 out of 290, 11.4%, Last Year 8.4%, up +3
Campus Community: 33 out of 410, 8%, Last Year 9%, down -1
Charter School of Wilm.: 2 out of 972, .2%, Last Year .6%, down -.4
Del. Academy of Public Safety: 59 out of 363, 16.2%, Last Year 13.3%, up +2.9
Delaware College Prep: 3 out of 203, 1.5%, Last Year 4.1%, down -2.6
Delaware Military Academy: 17 out of 569, 3%, Last Year 2.8%, up +.2
*Early College High School at DSU: 3 out of 129, 2.3%, New Charter School
East Side Charter: 62 out of 418, 14.8%, Last Year 15.1%, down -.3
Family Foundation Academy: 43 out of 811, 5.3%, Last Year 5.9%, down -.6
*First State Montessori Academy: 15 out of 280, 5.3%, New Charter School
Gateway Lab School: 127 out of 212, 60%, Last Year 58.7%, up +1.3
Kuumba Academy: 29 out of 464, 6.2%, Last Year 5.7%, up +.5
Las Americas Aspira: 31 out of 541, 5.7%, Last Year 4.6%, up +1.3
Moyer: 61 out of 208, 29.3%, Last Year 31.3%, down -2
MOT Charter: 53 out of 869, 6.1% , Last Year 5.9%, up +.2
Newark Charter: 109 out of 1,948, 5.6%, Last Year 5.7%, down -.1
Odyssey Charter: 40 out of 933, 4.3%, Last Year 4%, up +.3
Positive Outcomes: 83 out of 126, 66%, Last Year 63.3%, up +2.7
Prestige Academy: 54 out of 246, 22%, Last Year 19.5%, up +2.5
Providence Creek: 35 out of 688, 5.1%, Last Year 4.4%, up +.7
Reach Academy for Girls: 24 out of 377, 6.4%, Last Year 5.3%, up +1.1
Sussex Academy: 17 out of 498, 3.4%, Last Year 4.4%, down -1
Thomas Edison Charter: 53 out of 745, 7.1%, Last Year 6.8%, up +.3
Totals For Delaware Charters for 2014-2015: 988 out of 12,521, 7.9%
Even though they were above my “failure” threshold, they weren’t that far above it. The charters in Delaware need to do a much better job at special education. If I took Gateway and Positive Outcomes out of the mix, the average would be 778 out of 12,183, or 6.4%. And with Gateway’s fate undecided, they may not even be a factor next year. So overall Delaware charters, YOU FAILED to attract and retain special education students. And CSW, I didn’t think you could get any worse than last year, but really, 2 out of 972 students? No comment…
The Season Of Myths 
Hail Kevin, king of the internets!
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I have to read the data on DC schools to see if there is a breakdown for special needs.- http://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2014/11/20/education_policy_decisions_1134.html
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So here is my question; in a school where fewer than 7% of the students are classified, and in some cases where there are under ten students per school, do they even have staff on hand who understand how to accommodate and modify lessons or write an IEP? Do they have anyone there who can read a neuropsych report and turn that data into real-life action in the classroom that yields higher educational outcomes for the student? Is anyone available to do an educational evaluation? Most of my contract consulting is doing just that for private schools who do not have a budget for a full-time special education position. How on earth is their right to an appropriate placement even possible in these charters? (I was tempted to use ALL CAPS for that sentence!) I see there is still a LOT of work to be done.
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Judy, you hit the nail on the head. How about they stop denying IEPs as well. That’s why I write this blog, cause one little charter in DE played spec ed games with my son and my family.
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Reblogged this on Kilroy's delaware.
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Again, if we eliminate charters for good; we eliminate this problem.
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I do not mind charters that actually serve special needs kids, like Gateway and Positive Outcomes. Obviously the DOE minds one of the above. Shame on them!
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Yes, but you could also make them public schools, and get even better results out of them. Public schools rule, charter schools drool. since of the same district, it would then be possible to blend those scores into district scores for accountability purposes and keep all schools above the threshold for closing.
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