Bill targets charter school admissions

An Austin legislator wants to prohibit charter schools from denying admission to students based on their disciplinary history, setting up what could become the biggest battle during this year's legislative session in the ongoing fight between advocates of charter schools and traditional public schools.

The ability to turn down certain students gives an unfair advantage to charter schools, which are privately run but funded almost solely with state dollars, says state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, a former Austin school board president and author of House Bill 43.

Charter school officials, who say they are given flexibility by the state to be more innovative in their classrooms, say they don't have the facilities to handle students with chronic disciplinary problems.

Hinojosa said state law allows charter schools to deny students admission for issues as small as being sent to a principal’s office for being disruptive in class, something she said public school districts can’t do because they must serve all students.

“There should be the same requirements on charter schools that we have for ISDs, and if charter schools are going to get 100 percent state money like they do — they’re publicly funded — then they need to take all kids,” Hinojosa. Republican Reps. Ernest Bailes of Shepherd and Gary VanDeaver of New Boston are co-sponsors of the bill, which hasn't been scheduled for a committee hearing. The similar Senate Bill 2426 by Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, has also been filed.

The Texas House Committee on Public Education recommended in a report in December that the Legislature reconsider allowing charter schools to “exclude students based on disciplinary history, especially when the cited infractions are not criminal in nature, and work with charter holders on possible ways to reduce expulsions at charter schools.”

Officials from charter schools and traditional public schools have long had an antagonistic relationship, driven by competition over limited state education dollars — and often the same students.

'Not fair'

Starlee Coleman, executive director of the Texas Charter Schools Association, said it’s not reasonable to exclude a student from admission for minor infractions, but she fears that sweeping language in HB 43 would force charter schools to accept potentially dangerous students. She also said that, although charter schools have used discipline as a reason for admission denials, it rarely happens. The state doesn’t track admissions data.

Coleman said charter school officials would be open to discussing changing admission policies if charter schools were given more funding to accommodate students with behavioral problems. Charter schools cannot levy property taxes nor can they hold bond elections so they struggle to pay for adequate facilities, she said. Charter schools receive an average $1,700 less per student than the state and local funding traditional public schools receive, according to the Texas Charter Schools Association.

Many school districts have separate buildings, partner with other entities or set up a designated classroom for students with chronic disciplinary problems, which Hinojosa said charter schools could do. Last legislative session, lawmakers for the first time approved spending for charter schools to use for constructing buildings, which amounted to about $200 per student.

Coleman said it's not easy to abruptly make available separate education settings for troubled students.

“Our options for dealing with a student who has a serious behavioral situation are very limited. We cannot accommodate them in physically separate spaces in most circumstances in a charter school,” Coleman said. “It’s not fair to the kid who needs special attention and help. It’s not fair to other kids in the classroom who would be in a room with a student who could be violent. It’s not fair to the teacher.”

John Armbrust with Austin Achieve charter school said the charter's two campuses have never denied admission based on discipline history and do not expel or suspend students. Students who would otherwise face suspension are placed in another classroom in small group settings with a coordinator and social worker.

“We are not trying to avoid serving all kids. We take great pride in serving all kids from all sorts of backgrounds,” Armbrust said. “We are totally open to the dialogue of a practical bill that makes sense that removes or changes … the (admission) exemption, but the way this particular bill is written is not thoughtful.”

'Ensure equal access'

Because Latino and African-American students and students in special education programs are disciplined at a disproportionately higher rate, traditional public school advocates fear charter schools are excluding such students from admission.

“We have to ensure equal access to schools for children, and they shouldn’t be denied an educational opportunity because of their past discipline history, particularly when we know that certain students are more likely to be punished and excluded from schools based on factors like their race or the fact that they have a disability,” said Morgan Craven with San Antonio-based Intercultural Development Research Association.

Many charter school policies state that the schools reserve the right to deny admissions due to a documented history of criminal offenses, juvenile court adjudications and discipline issues listed in the state education code.

Coleman said over the last nine months, she has been asking her members about situations in which a student was denied admissions. She was told of one prospective student who was turned away because the student had slashed someone with a knife.

Hinojosa said the discretion in admissions is symptomatic of a greater problem, which is that charter schools are unwilling to educate students who require more attention and services.

The House committee’s December report said charter school students made up 46 percent of expulsions statewide in 2016-17 but made up 5 percent of all public school students that year. The report suggested this is due to the fact that charter schools can list reasons for expelling students in their codes of conduct that go beyond what’s required by law. Hinojosa has filed another bill to restrict charter schools policies on expulsions.

Steven Aleman with Disability Rights Texas said his organization recently represented a Central Texas student who settled with a charter school after the student was expelled.

In 2016-17, 5.1 percent of charter students were in special education programs compared with 8.8 percent in traditional public schools.

“Students with disabilities, like all students, have a right to our public school system and the best education,” Aleman said. “It’s about fundamental treatment."