Charter schools blindsided by cuts to money for disabled students

Palm Beach Post

By Andrew Marra

Palm Beach County’s public school system has abruptly slashed the money it distributes to charter schools for educating children with learning disabilities, leaving the schools scrambling to fill new holes in their budgets a month after classes began.

School district administrators say that for more than a decade they have been overpaying charter schools by millions of dollars to provide extra services for learning-disabled students. This year’s change, announced in late August, is an effort to halt those overpayments, they said.

But charter school leaders questioned the timing of the decision, which was announced months after most schools had planned their annual budgets and arranged for services for disabled students. Some said they were not made aware of the changes until earlier this month.

“We’ve had the same funding for at least the last 14 years, and then we went to a principals meeting and we were told they were changing the formula,” said Susan Onori, principal of Imagine Schools’ Chancellor Campus in Boynton Beach. “For them to cut it in August, how are we going to provide support to these kids now?”

Onori said she is now bracing for her school’s budget to be cut by more than $100,000.

Advocates of charter schools, which are privately managed but publicly financed, criticized the district for springing the decision at the last minute, a move that they said could end up affecting services for disabled students. The county’s 50 charter schools educate about 20,000 students. Of those, 3,200 are estimated to have learning disabilities.

“You do not change the rules in the middle of the game, especially when it involves children,” said Ralph Arza, a lobbyist for the Florida Charter School Alliance. “This is an example of some bureaucrat looking for a way to keep money in the district’s hands.”

The controversy involves federal grant money for services to students with learning disabilities, which vary from speech impediments to autism and physical handicaps. The federal money is in addition to money the state provides.

Traditional public schools receive the federal money based on the severity of their students’ disabilities. The more complex a student’s needs, the more money the school receives.

But for years, charter schools have received the maximum amount – about $1,000 per student – for every learning-disabled student enrolled, even ones with relatively minor disabilities, said Keith Oswald, the school district’s chief academic officer.

“They’ve been getting $1,000 per student no matter what the needs are,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is match the dollars up to the needs of the students.”

Oswald said that the practice dated back to more than a decade ago when “we didn’t have as many charter schools that were taking higher-functioning (learning-disabled) kids.”

“We have to be responsible for equitable distribution of these funds,” he said. “And what has been happening is we’ve been giving more funding to the charter schools than we have to the traditional schools.”

Oswald said the money being withheld from charters this year would be used “to fund support for students in the district based on need.”

The effect of the change is also being felt at charter schools that specialize in educating students with complex disabilities, educators said.

“We were opened to specifically serve students with cognitive and mental-health challenges,” said Barbara Fitz, executive director of EdVenture Charter School in Lantana. “Because we serve a more severe population, we probably won’t get hit as dramatically. But any cut at this point is painful, especially when we didn’t know about it.”

Several charter school principals said they understood the logic behind the change but said they should have been consulted and warned.

“It’s just not good. It’s a very poor plan,” said Greg Hauptner, CEO of G-Star School of the Arts in Palm Springs. “The charter schools were not invited or asked for their opinion and had absolutely no say in it.”

Several school leaders have asked for the change to be postponed for a year. Arza, a former legislator, said he asked the state Department of Education to intervene.

“You don’t just do something for 10 or 12 years and then wake up one day and say, ‘We’re not going do that anymore’ without telling anyone,” Arza said.

 


 

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