OCR Investigation Update

As described earlier, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating complaints about the enrollment and admissions of students with disabilities in 29 charter schools in 21 districts and CSI. CACSA learned the complaints were filed by Colorado Disability Law (DLC), which is a federally supported protection and advocacy organization. The current complaints were based on the DLC’s review of charter school websites and focused on charter school application and enrollment forms that ask about a student’s disability status and that fail to include non-discrimination statements. CACSA recommends, and OCR’s published guidance states, that charter schools should not inquire about disability status until after a student is admitted to the school. The DLC is currently preparing Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests for enrollment and application forms from charter schools that had not posted their forms online. The DLC plans to file complaints against schools and districts in cases where these forms also ask about disability status. Districts and charter schools may want to review current charter school enrollment and application forms and make needed changes. CACSA has created materials in partnership with the Colorado League of Charter Schools that may be helpful as districts and charter schools seek to resolve these complaints. CACSA will continue to monitor this issue.

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New CACSA Materials Released

CACSA has recently posted new resources, including the CACSA Model Charter Contract, and the Colorado Charter School Renewal Package. Webinars and technical assistance with these resources will be available this fall. CACSA is in the final stages of preparing materials for new authorizer boot camps.