By Alex Medler & Amelia Meunier

Colorado could do better at providing students with disabilities access to charter schools. According to the most recently-available national data, among all states with charter schools, Colorado charters have the lowest rate of enrollment of students with IEPs and one of the largest gaps between enrollment of students with disabilities in charter schools compared to non-chartered schools.

A recently-released report by the National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools (NCSECS) examines this issue. Shared Responsibility, Shared Accountability: An Analysis of Enrollment of Students with Disabilities in Colorado Charter Schools was commissioned by the Schools of Choice Unit (SOC) at the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). We recommend reading the full report. The study was designed to document enrollment of students with disabilities in charter schools in the state and to explore potential obstacles to enrollment occurring at the school, district, or state level.

Using Colorado data from 2019-2020 school year, the report found that 7.4 percent of charter school students had an IEP, compared to 11.4 percent of traditional public school students. The NCSECS analysis used nationally comparable data as well as data made available by CDE through data-sharing agreement that included information on all charter schools’ enrollment at a level of granularity not available publicly. The study also examined every Colorado charter school’s website, analyzed policies and contracts, and incorporated previous research and interviews with key stakeholders.

For those working in Colorado’s charter sector, the report’s findings are not surprising. Still, they deserve our attention, and the recommendations should be considered. There are many factors contributing to the state’s current situation; and as the report suggests, leaders at every level of Colorado’s public school system could find ways to help Colorado realize the promise of fuller access to public school choice for our students with disabilities. This includes charter schools, districts, and the state. The Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers (CACSA), which urged the SOC to commission the study, is eager to partner with Colorado charter school authorizers and charter school operators to improve the situation.

Many people and groups including authorizers, schools, and the state are already working on ways to mitigate these challenges. Resources are available and innovative thinking and strategies are underway that can help–but we can do more. All Colorado stakeholders should collaborate to design and implement both short- and long-term strategies.

CACSA is committed to helping charter authorizers and charter schools engage in best practices related to enrollment that would also align with more equitable access for students with disabilities. This report provides steps that we can take immediately and some that will take a while. It also raises a few big questions—particularly around state structures, finance, and policy—that require further study and broader discussion.
Among the immediate steps are improvements in how schools and districts discuss enrollment and services for students with disabilities on their websites. The study examined all of Colorado charter school websites, and found:

• 61 percent lack descriptions of how they enroll students with disabilities;
• 45 percent lack descriptions of how they enroll students overall;
• 63 percent do not describe how they educate students with disabilities;
• 10 percent publish enrollment policies with elements that could be interpreted as exclusionary and did not have any anti-discrimination clauses; and
• 18 percent of application forms ask whether a student has a disability with no anti-discrimination clauses or statements of purpose to help parents understand how information might impact applications.

CACSA, the Charter School Institute (CSI), the Collaborative for Exceptional Education (CEE), and CDE have released or are producing materials and other supports to help charter schools improve websites. As public schools of choice, all charter schools should clearly communicate their commitments to non-discriminatory practices and to enrolling and serving students with disabilities in accordance with state and federal law. It is worth noting that many districts could improve their own websites to better describe how families of students with disabilities can exercise all their public school choice options.

Similar materials and resources could help with other communication tasks. CACSA and the CEE are planning to develop materials to help charter schools train staff who work directly with parents during outreach, recruitment, and enrollment to ensure they discuss special education appropriately. Intent to enroll forms, applications, and other material should also be reviewed to ensure that schools do not ask about a student’s disability status prematurely. CACSA looks forward to working with authorizers and all other willing partners in the long-term to understand all the dynamics at play and to address them in ways that make sense for Colorado’s context. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to do the little things that could help.