Lisa Snell, Reason Public Policy Institute July 2004
The Reason Public Policy Institute's Lisa Snell authored this 30-pager addressing how, and how well, charter schools are accountable for their (estimated) 56-80,000 special ed pupils and how to strengthen their capacity to do right by such youngsters. It presents results from a survey of California charters, some of them quite interesting, especially with respect to ways that IDEA cramps innovation by charter schools. The biggest challenge is the mismatch between IDEA's funding mechanisms and the circumstances of charter schools - and how much better they, and their disabled students, would be served by a weighted per-pupil funding system in which the dollars follow the student to the school he/she attends. You can find it online here.
