South Bronx Classical Charter School

“Charter schools boot 2 ‘troubled’ kindergartners; Disciplined kids given psychiatric suspensions.” NY Daily News, 4/30/2012  

Two kindergartners were yanked from separate charter schools after staff deemed them too troubled to attend, their lawyer and parents said.

The students — one of them on her first day at a new school — were removed after being placed on so-called “psychiatric suspensions,” according to Nelson Mar, who is representing the two families...

Generally, schools are required to evaluate students with special needs or behavior problems. Then the schools are supposed to address the students’ needs through counseling or other means...

In another case, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating the suspension last fall of Christian Charriez, 6, a special-needs student at South Bronx Classical Charter School.

The school suspended Christian four times — and told him the last time that he had to stay out until he received a psychiatric analysis and diagnosis, which is still under way.

Principal Lester Long said the school invited Christian back to school and contacted his mother multiple times, but a letter from the family’s lawyer shows the school was contacted multiple times without response.

After a month out of class, the boy transferred to a public school, his mom said, where he was assigned a teacher’s aide to help him, and he now loves going to school instead of dreading it...