CACSA Webinar on Policy Proposals Re. Students with Disabilities:
April 1, 2022; 3:00 to 4:30 pm
CACSA is hosting a webinar on April 1st, from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm to discuss proposed legislation affecting students with disabilities in charter schools. The webinar will address HB22-1294, a recently-introduced bill supported by the Colorado League of Charter Schools (CLCS). A CACSA white paper describing the legislation is available here.
This bill would make several changes in charter school and district responsibilities. It would allow charter schools to join the CSI Administrative Unit (AU) for the purposes of special education without being authorized by CSI. Charter collaboratives and charter networks would also be able to create alternative AUs that charter schools could join. It would also clarify in statute that charter schools may provide enrollment preferences to students with disabilities.
Under the proposed new policies, charter schools joining an alternative AU would switch responsibility for special education programming and compliance from their authorizing district to the charter school and its alternative AU. HB22-1294 sponsor, Representative Dafna Michaelson Jenet, will participate, as well as researchers from the Center for Learner Equity (CLE), and a panel of experts and stakeholders.
Please note that CASCA does not have a position on HB22-1294 and is convening this webinar to provide information and to deepen the discussion of this potential change to the legal structures controlling services for students with disabilities in charter schools. Information on the Webinar is below:
Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 871 6947 6232
Passcode: 383450
One tap mobile: +16699009128,,87169476232#
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Adams 14 Resolves Charter Appeal with Novel Approach
The Adams 14 school district resolved a pending appeal for a charter school seeking to transition from the Charter School Institute (CSI) to the district. Adams 14 denied an application from the Community Leadership Academy (CLA)/Victory Prep Academy (VPA), after which CLA/PVA appealed the decision to the State Board of Education. That appeal was withdrawn this month after the Adams 14 board approved a resolution clarifying alternative authorizing options that may be available to the school. A video of the meeting that includes a reading of the resolution is available. Discussion of the resolution begins at 2:21:40 into the video.
The resolution is different from previous efforts by districts to end a charter school appeal. The resolution stated that the school would not reapply to Adams 14 for six years. It also clarified that the district would not object if the school sought to be authorized by any state-wide authorizer allowed by state law, or by other eligible authorizers, including any Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES). There is currently no other state authorizer besides CSI, which is the school’s current authorizer. There is little likelihood of Colorado creating additional authorizers in the immediate future.
BOCES are not allowed to charter schools. The ER BOCES, which had recently approved several schools to operate as “contract schools”, is currently prevented from contracting with additional contract schools because of a one-year moratorium enacted by the legislature in the previous legislative session. Contract schools are legally different from charter schools. A legal challenge is pending regarding a previous decision in Colorado District Court that allowed the ER BOCES to approve contract schools.
Charter schools can be approved by contiguous districts (i.e., districts that are immediately adjacent to the district in which the charter school would operate.)
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State Rule Revisions Re. Students w/ Disabilities Available for Comment
CDE is soliciting input on revisions to State Board rules that address Colorado’s Exceptional Children’s Education Act (ECEA). The proposed changes would affect the processes districts use to direct students with disabilities to a specific location, or school, that would be different from the school the student’s family chose and would have attended if the student did not have a disability.
The rules will be considered for final adoption at the April 13 meeting of the State Board, which will be an in-person meeting. Submit comments via email at: state.board@cde.state.co.us. These rules are a second round of changes prompted by a series of complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights about admissions procedures for charter schools. A redline version of the proposed changes is available here (revisions are on pages 48-49). Information on how to submit comments on the proposed rules is available here.