D.C. charter schools exclude the disabled, advocates say - The Washington Post: The District’s public charter schools discriminate against students with disabilities — especially those with significant needs — in their admissions policies and often steer them instead to expensive private schools, special education advocates contend in a complaint filed Thursday with the Justice Department.
The city’s 52 publicly financed, independently operated charter schools, which educate nearly 29,000 students, are supposed to be open to all, with admission by lottery when demand exceeds available slots. But attorneys for the Bazelon Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, cite data showing that the city’s traditional public schools serve far more students with the highest level of needs than the charter schools do.
