Students with disabilities account for almost 15% of the K-12 student population in the United States. Yet they are often underrepresented in charter schools, which are publicly funded schools open to all students. While there are discussions about what type of school environment best supports these students, it is important to take a closer look at the difference in learning environments.
New research from Michigan State University found that after students with disabilities switched from a traditional public school to a charter school, their attendance and academic outcomes were comparable and, in some cases, even improved.
The study, published in the journal Education Finance and Policy, was led by Scott Imberman, a professor in MSU’s Department of Economics in the College of Social Science. The research was supported by the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice, or REACH.
“Educators and parents have worried that charter schools don’t provide students with disabilities the educational environment that they need to thrive,” Imberman said. “This work shows that in Michigan’s charters, while it does seem that charters tend to provide fewer special education services, the students with disabilities who enroll see similar improvements in achievement as other charter students.”
Background of special education programs
In 2020, around 7.5 million U.S. public education students were estimated to have a disability. Traditionally, these students were placed in separate special education classrooms. However, there has been a shift to more inclusion with almost two-thirds of students with disabilities, or SWD, spending 80% of their days in general education classrooms.
There have been concerns about the availability and quality of special education teachers in charter schools, as SWDs typically spend more time in the general classroom compared to tailored programs. While existing research has examined academic outcomes for SWDs in charters, there has been less information on how charters influence identification of these students and their learning environments.
Study method and pool
Imberman, along with Andrew Johnson of Boston University, who was a Michigan State doctoral student, examined data from Michigan students in kindergarten through eighth grade between 2013 and 2018. This sample included just over 1.7 million students who attended either a public school or charter school.
The researchers examined disability identification rates of students in both types of schools, and they also compared the time spent on specific special education learning programs and participation in two common types of support programs for SWDs:
Resource programs involve resource rooms or separate special education classrooms where students spend a portion of their school day. While students spend most of their days in the general classrooms, they return to these rooms for tailored and specialized support.
Cognitive programs are intended to address cognitive disabilities with more intensive programming and assistance. These students spend their entire days in these classrooms, which are more selective and costly.
Findings and further research
The researchers found that after students enrolled in charter schools, disability classifications increased.
Further, after making the switch into charter schools, students saw an increase in resource program participation of 2 percentage points and a decrease in cognitive programs by 0.4 percentage points — suggesting students’ special education services became less intensive while the share of all students spending time in special education environments increased. There was also an increase in time SWDs spent in general education classrooms.
Another result was improvement in attendance, with absences decreasing by just over 3% and an improvement in academic outcomes, with math and reading scores improving for both SWD and general education students.
The findings were not an assessment of what resources best serve students, but rather how resources worked in the context of when students switched school type. Keeping students with disabilities more isolated from their peers could limit opportunities, but it is also important that they receive specialized care. This research calls for policy and examinations into how to achieve this balance.
“While parents of disabled students are often understandably wary of enrolling in a charter school, this research shows that some of these students can thrive in charter environments,” Imberman said. “It opens up an option to parents of students with disabilities that they may not have thought they could take advantage of.”
