The National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools (the Center) released Key Trends in Special Education in Charter Schools in 2015–2016: Secondary Analysis of the Civil Rights Data Collection - the third analysis in six years of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) which tracks the emerging trends as reported by 85,864 public schools across the U.S., of which 5,548 are charter schools.
Highlights of key findings include:
Students with disabilities are suspended about twice as often as their peers without disabilities across all schools.
- Charter schools suspended higher percentages of all students than traditional public schools, and their students with disabilities were suspended the most.
- Charter schools are enrolling more students with disabilities than in the past, yet collectively continue to enroll proportionally fewer students with disabilities compared to traditional public schools.
- Charter schools tend to educate students with disabilities in the general education environment at higher rates compared to traditional public schools.
- Charter schools report a higher percentage of enrollment of students with autism and emotional disturbance, disability profiles that frequently require more significant supports and services.
New to this report are analyses that include gender and race, the impact of a charter’s legal status on enrollment and educational environment, and the growth of specialized charter schools who focus on serving students with disabilities.
Read the report and check out detailed state-level information and national trend data using the interactive data set here.