Charter school dumping kids with special needs

Juan Gonzales, Democracy Now - I’ve been now investigating for years the spread of charter schools across New York City and the nation, and in particular I’ve been focusing on the fastest-growing chain here in New York City, the Success Academies charter network, which now has about 20 schools and is planning to expand to a hundred schools after receiving this week a $5 million grant from the Eli Broad Foundation.

And one of the things that I’ve been uncovering is the enormous suspension rates of the charter schools, as more than two dozen parents have come to me complaining about their children, who are special needs, special education children, or children with behavior problems, that they feel are being pushed out or forced out by the charter school in an effort to improve its test scores, because the charter school, Success Academy, has one of the highest test scores of schools in the City of New York, and that’s part of its selling points to continue to seek corporate foundation funding and to attempt to grow the charter model.

MORE