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Advancing the Human & Civil Rights of People with Disabilities in Illinois

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Charter School Renewal Comments

Research findings about charter schools in Chicago

March 16, 2015 — Equip for Equality has sent an open letter to Chicago Public Schools (CPS) with new findings about the experience of students with disabilities in charter schools and a multitude of never-before reviewed data about the 45 schools that will be considered for renewal in 2015 or 2016. These findings come from a year-long investigation, compilation of public data, data obtained through FOIA requests, review of charter school policies, and work on behalf of more than 150 families in over 50 charter schools.

EFE encourages CPS to strengthen the reauthorization process. CPS should:

  • Analyze all performance, enrollment, and discipline data disaggregated by whether a student has a disability and disability type.
  • Review admissions practices to ensure there are no unlawful barriers to enrollment such as requests for improper information prior to the lottery or admissions exams.
  • Require charter school applications to include nondiscrimination statements.
  • Include in new or reauthorized charter contracts the groundwork for specialized programs to promote the inclusion of students with disabilities.

EFE also calls on CPS to investigate the troubling new findings about charter schools.

Please see the highlights of our findings (EFE Charter School Renewal Comments – Highlights) and review our full letter to CPS (EFE Charter School Renewal Comments – Full Letter).

Charter School Fact Sheets

As part of EFE’s comments about the charter school renewal process, EFE has prepared a fact sheet about each charter school campus that will be considered for renewal in 2015 or 2016. Each fact sheet compiles publicly available data with graphs, maps, and charts to compare each campus to charter schools, similar CPS schools, and schools near the campus.

You can read about our methods for compiling this data here: EFE Renewal Comments – Methodology Notes.

Elementary Schools

High Schools

Option Schools

Equip for Equality Charter School Project

For more information about Equip for Equality’s Charter School work, click here.

For more information, contact:
Charlie Wysong
(312) 895-7340
Charlie@equipforequality.org

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Last updated: August 03, 2018

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