Birmingham Community Charter High School

“LAUSD issues notice of violations to Birmingham charter school, first step in revoking charter.” LA Daily News (CA), 5/1/2012

Birmingham Community Charter High School has until May 23 to respond to concerns that it mishandled admissions, expulsions and claims of racial bias as it fights to prevent Los Angeles Unified from retaking control of the campus.

The LAUSD board issued a notice of violations on Tuesday, the first of three steps in revoking the school's charter. As outlined in an April 13 letter from Superintendent John Deasy, the charter faces allegations that include racial discrimination against African-American players on the basketball team, as well as claims that neighborhood children and special-education students were denied admission to the charter...

Board member Tamar Galatzan said she wants the school to act quickly to remedy the "very serious" allegations of discrimination and high numbers of expulsions at Birmingham, but also raised concerns about poor communication between the district and the school...

In an interview after the meeting, Larry Schapiro, who chairs Birmingham's board of directors, said school leaders were aware of the racial discrimination claims - a federal civil rights investigation is pending - but were unaware of the other alleged violations until they received Deasy's letter...

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South Carolina Virtual Charter School

“Test Result: No School for Student with Asperger Syndrome.” Education Week, 10/14/2011

At the moment, South Carolina mother Gretchen Herrera isn't worried about whether her son has to take state tests in reading and math this year.

He has to be in school for her to worry about that.

Last week, Ms. Herrera told me about how she doesn't want her son Anthony, 12, to take the tests because his two diagnoses, Asperger syndrome and Type I diabetes, are a somewhat lethal combination. Anthony did well on the one test he did take, but his blood sugar spiked to a dangerous level during the exam. She kept him from most of the testing last spring as a result, unable to get official permission from the school to do so despite a note from a doctor.

Then last weekend, Ms. Herrera staged a petite protest outside the South Carolina state government buildings in Columbia.

When she got home, there was a letter waiting for her. The online charter school her son attends said Anthony is no longer welcome.

The school said because Ms. Herrera signed a contract when she enrolled Anthony, a contract that includes a clause about taking state tests, and violated that contract, her son was being withdrawn from the school, effective immediately.

Ms. Herrera told me she did sign that contract—"except the part about testing," she told me. The school, which didn't make adequate yearly progress as measured by No Child Left Behind, hasn't called me back to explain more about its decision. The immediate question: Why unenroll Anthony now, and not months ago when he didn't take the state tests?

As Ms. Herrera researches schools that she believes would be a good fit for Anthony, he has been sitting at home, his access to the online charter school cut off...

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More @ http://grumpythings.blogspot.com/search/label/Gretchen%20Herrera

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New Orleans Charter Science & Mathematics High School

“Oprah-Backed Charter School Denying Disabled Collides with Law.” Bloomberg News, Sep 20, 2011

When talk-show host Oprah Winfrey handed a $1 million check last September to the principal of New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy, 200 students watched the broadcast from a church and celebrated with a brass band.

Lawrence Melrose, a ninth-grader with learning and emotional disabilities, sat next door in a school office. The staff was concerned his fighting and cursing could be an embarrassment, said Shelton Joseph, his great uncle. Because he has trouble communicating, Lawrence needed intensive counseling and speech therapy, which the school didn’t provide, Joseph said. He was repeatedly suspended and told he couldn’t take the school bus with other kids, according to his lawyer.

The education of 16-year-old Lawrence represents a common complaint about privately run, taxpayer-financed charter schools: They often exclude children with serious disabilities or deny them the help they need, violating federal laws.

“They left me,” Joseph recalled the boy telling him on the day of the Winfrey celebration. “They left me out.”

Along with the academy supported by Oprah’s Angel Network - - which the entertainer used to raise money from the public -- New Orleans charter schools accused of discrimination include those that are favored charities of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT)’s Walton family and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees.

Shunning special-education students helps school budgets since the average disabled child costs twice as much to serve as a nondisabled one, said Thomas Hehir, who oversaw federal special-education programs under President Bill Clinton. The practice also improves the reported academic results of schools because children with disabilities often have lower scores on standardized tests, he said...

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“Teenager Committs Suicide Due To High Stakes Test Scores.” WDSU (LA), 7/5/2011: This is a video news report.

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