Choosing the right educational environment for your child can be an overwhelming decision for any parent. The process is even more complicated for parents of children with special needs. Charter schools offer parents of children with special needs a needed alternative to traditional district schools, and may provide an opportunity for parents looking for a learning environment that is better able to meet their child’s needs.

What is a charter school?

Charter schools are public schools. As with all public schools, they are free and open to everyone who applies. Charter schools allow teachers and the local community the flexibility to design public school programs that meet the needs of the students they serve. Charter schools also give parents choices. If a traditional public school is not meeting the needs of a student, then their parents can enroll them in a charter school that may better meet their needs.

Charter schools are given an increased level of freedom from some of the regulations of the Education Code through a performance contract, a “charter”, with their local school district. This contract allows charter schools to be held accountable for how student achievement improves. Charter schools have more freedom to develop a learning environment likely to increase student achievement and depend on this improved student achievement in order to have their contract renewed.

There are over 3,000 charter schools across the country enrolling almost 700,000 students. Most charter schools are started by groups of parents, educators, or community organization that have a vision for delivering a learning program tailored to the needs of the students the school is serving.

Why are charter schools important?

While there are many high performing regular public schools across the nation, there are also many chronically underperforming public schools. In many of these underperforming schools, the traditional “one-size-fits-all” assembly line approach to public education, which simple passes children through the traditional public education system without meeting their needs, isn’t working.

Charter schools allow the flexibility to design an education program best suited to individual students. Charter schools are governed locally often by people directly involved in the school. Charter schools allow increased flexibility for teachers to determine what teaching style is best to achieve the goals for student achievement, and create more options for parent and community involvement.

Why a charter might be right for a special needs child

Since charter schools have more freedom from state and district regulation, teachers are better able to create a learning environment to meet the needs of individual students. Charter schools have the flexibility to reach kids who are not succeeding by introducing innovative teaching and learning practices to increase student achievement. For example, CHIME charter school in Los Angeles, California serves a high percentage of special needs children and follows a full-inclusion model whereby students with severe learning disabilities have opportunities to learn in small groups alongside more traditional learners. As opposed to the model followed by most district schools, where special needs students are taught separately from “at grade level” students and “gifted” students, at CHIME, instruction and learning builds upon the various learning styles and differences across these groups.

Many parents feel that charter schools are more responsive to parents’ concerns since parents have the ultimate choice as to whether or not their child will attend the charter school. Charter schools typically demonstrate phenomenal levels of parent involvement and participation. For example, The Accelerated School, also in Los Angeles, was voted Time Magazine’s “2001 Elementary School of the Year” and has a waiting list of over 400 parents waiting to get their children into the school. Parents of children at the Accelerated School volunteer an average of 30 hours per year at the school.

How to decide if a charter school is right for your child

It is important to be informed. Parents who approach the question of their child’s public education with the utmost due diligence and research will benefit tremendously. Once a parent locates a charter school in their area, they should talk to teachers that work at the school, and other parents who send their children there. Public school academic performance data is readily available over the internet or through local school districts. This data can often tell you how a charter school is performing compared to other schools in the district or area. Charter schools will typically allow parents to visit the school, meet with administrators and ask questions about how the schools can meet the needs of their child.

Where to get more information

For more information about charter schools, start by visiting the Federal Department of Education’s charter school website. The website can help direct you to charter school associations in your state, which can help you identify charter schools in your area.

www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/index.htm/