Transcript Document

School Choice, Vouchers, and
Students with Disabilities
Class Presentation
February 7th, 2007
Talk Overview
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Central Questions
Placement as choice
Choice policy
Voucher programs
IDEA and School Choice
“Meta Moments”
Central Questions
• How do school choice policies affect
service delivery for students with
disabilities?
• Are voucher programs effective for
students with disabilities?
Definitions
• What do we mean by “placement”?
• What can a school choice policy look
like?
• What is a voucher program?
• Relationship between choice and
vouchers.
• Meta-Moment
What do you think?
An education monopoly motivates
governments to provide schools that are
just good enough to avoid large scale
rebellion. (Buckingham)
Meta-Moment
Placement as Choice
• Placement Options
– Inclusion
– Special Day Class (pull out)
– Separate setting (program or school)
• When can this be a private school?
– State is still very involved in placement and monitoring
• “Forced” vs. “Voluntary.Unilateral” placement?
• Implications
– Financial
– IDEA accommodations and services
– IDEA due process
School Choice
• Why the push for choice options?
– Parent satisfaction
– Student achievement
• Why is it supposed to work?
– Engaged parents
– Private schools are better (Rothstein et
al?)
– Free market models pressure to improve
Figure 7.1
School Choice
Competition
between
schools
Increased
P arent
Involvement
Access to
P rivate
Education
Hypoth e si
ze d O u tcome s
O Greater quality inst ruction
1) Higher student achievement
2) Higher parent satisfaction
3) Diversity in higher performing schools
4) Safer learning environments in privat e schools
5) Financial drain on already challenged schools
6) Lower morale for t eachers and staff in exiting
school
Why the Controversy?
• Constitution: Neutral regarding religion
• Parent control and whose money it is
(Buckingham article)
• Is this a democratic institution? A free-market
institution? (Larry Cuban)
• Is it accessible by all or only to a few?
• Funding vs. Teaching Control and Responsibility
• Else?
Prevalence of School Choice
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District policies
State policies (Vermont and Maine)
City voucher programs
Accountability choice: NCLB
– AYP
– Language about FAPE is vague
– School Safety
Choice: School Safety
Usually includes some of the following
elements: incidents where police officers are
called to the campus, assaults on faculty or
students, use of a weapon, robbery, rape,
murder, and kidnapping:
A ‘persistently dangerous school’ is a public school in which the conditions during
the past two school years continually exposed its students to injury from violent
criminal offenses and it is an elementary, middle or secondary public school in
which a total of five or more violent criminal offenses were committed per 1000
students (0.5 or more per 100 students) in two consecutive school years. North
Carolina State Board of Education:
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/schoolimprovement/alternative/safeschools/dang
erous/
Florida’s Mc Kay Model
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Scholarships to private schools
Only children with established IEPs are eligible
2007-08: 18,000 students and 824 schools
Worth the amount the institution charges to serve
a student with the particular disability, or what the
state average is for instruction. Range from
$5,000 - $21,000. Average $7,000. Total spent:
$119 million last year.
• 62% were religiously affiliated
• Very little outcome data available
US DOE Letter to Bowen
(2001)
• "if the FDE (Florida Department of Education) and its local
school districts have made FAPE available to eligible children
with disabilities in a public school but their parents elect to place
them in private schools through the Scholarship Program, then
such children are considered 'private school children with
disabilities' enrolled by their parents. Under IDEA, such
parentally placed private school students with disabilities have
no individual entitlement to a free appropriate public education
including special education and related services in connection
with those placements." Letter to Bowen 35 IDELR 129 (ED,
March 2001)
How do school choice policies
affect service delivery for
students with disabilities?
• Six Core Principles of IDEA
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Zero Reject
Non-discriminatory Evaluation
Individualized and Appropriate Services
Least Restrictive Environment
Due Process
Parent and Student participation
• Meta Moment
Are voucher programs effective
for students with disabilities?
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Money that can be taken to private schools
Tend to be targeted to low income areas
Tax credits are another mechanism, sometimes
called “universal vouchers”
• Accountability and Vouchers: NCLB
– Supplemental Educational Services (SES)
– What we know about SES for Students with
disabilities
Current Prevalence
• City Specific:
• Cleveland
• Milwaukee
• Targeted to low-income areas
• States: Maine and Vermont, Florida*
• Federal: Washington DC
Putting it Together
Design
Funding
Services
Design Factors that Matter
• Maximum enrollment/funding of program
• Alternatives available
• Admission (some programs randomly assign
applicants)
• Transportation: is it available?
• Are schools able to provide information about
instruction, accommodations, teacher aids,
transportation, etc., before decision is made?**
• Amount of voucher vs. cost of school
Financial Implications
• Student-Based Funding and Impact on Schools
• Cost of Special Education – do you create a special
program for students with disabilities?
• Voucher coverage of cost. What funding level is
meaningful?
• Only wealthy can take advantage, or if school has
scholarships
• Does reduction in funds indirectly limit what district
can provide to students with disabilities?
Instructional Implications
• Private school focus: how does this affect
instruction student receives?
• Need for choice school to be able to implement
IEP. How do you document this?
• Are schools accountable for student incoming IEP
as per IDEA? Does this include accommodations?
• Are schools accountable for student achievement
as per NCLB?
Doing What Works
• We have very little information on rigorous,
controlled studies -- Meta Moment
• Main reports from the Government
Accounting Office (GAO)
• Outcomes looked at:
– Student achievement
– Parent satisfaction
What do we need to know about school choice
and vouchers for students with disabilities?
• Think about…
– Funding implications
– Instruction
– IEP development and implementation
– Student outcomes
– Effects on schools
– Parents
– Other?
How do we know it?
You as the Scholar-Practitioner!
Design an study!
• What question do you think is important to
study?
• Who would you study?
• What data would you collect?
• How could you do this in the field?