Students with disabilities were more likely to see punitive discipline and less likely to access rigorous coursework during the height of the pandemic. This held true in both traditional public schools and charter schools, showing a consistent pattern of inequities even in the most unusual school year.
The Center for Learner Equity, a research and advocacy organization that focuses on how the charter sector serves students with disabilities, examines federal data released biennially to understand the experiences of different student populations in charter and traditional public schools. This year’s report, released Tuesday, analyzed data from the 2020-21 school year, an unprecedented school year in which many students learned remotely for either part of or the entire year. But many of the findings have been true for years.
As recovery from the pandemic continues, it’s critical to see what the experiences were for students with disabilities during that school year, said Jennifer Coco, the center’s senior director of strategy and impact. Students with disabilities were among the most severely affected during the pandemic, with schools struggling to provide accommodations and therapies remotely. Their academic recovery in the years since has been slower than their peers’.
“What does this tell us about how we should continue to inform and focus these recovery conversations about making sure that kids with disabilities, wherever they enroll in school, are getting access to the supports and services that we know they need to be successful?” she said.
The number of students identified as having a disability surged after the pandemic, with 7.5 million students qualifying for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in the 2022-23 school year. Generally, while the population of students with disabilities continues to grow in the nation’s public and charter schools, traditional public schools still serve the bulk of those students, and a decades-long enrollment gap between charter and traditional public schools persists.
Charters have faced scrutiny historically for enrolling a smaller proportion of students with disabilities than their public school counterparts, which have to admit any student who seeks to enroll.
Here are some key takeaways from the report.
Students with disabilities remain more severely disciplined
Even as the use of exclusionary discipline decreased during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—as more students learned from home and schools reckoned with punitive measures amid a national conversation on policing and race—students with disabilities were still disciplined at higher rates than their peers in both traditional and charter schools, according to the analysis.
Students with disabilities were two times more likely to face suspension and referrals to law enforcement than their peers without disabilities, Coco said. They were 22 times more likely to experience physical restraint.
“That cuts across whether it’s a traditional public school or public charter school,” Coco said. “Our finding on that point, on behalf of students with disabilities, is that all public schools need to continue to do more to ensure that they’re investing in the right types of practices and interventions that we know keep kids in school and accommodate the needs of students with disabilities in particular.”
In traditional public schools, roughly 3 percent of students with disabilities had at least one in-school suspension, and another 3 percent had at least one out-of-school suspension. Fewer of their peers without disabilities, meanwhile, faced in-school suspension (1.5 percent) and out-of-school suspension (1 percent). Students with disabilities were 1.65 times more likely to be secluded—put in isolation—than their peers without disabilities.
In charters, roughly 0.7 percent of students with disabilities were suspended in school, and roughly 1.4 percent were suspended out of school, compared to 0.4 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, of students without disabilities. Students with disabilities were 2.11 times more likely to be secluded than their peers without disabilities.
Referrals to law enforcement also remained high: the proportion of students referred to law enforcement was more than two times greater for students with disabilities in both charter and traditional public schools.
Students with disabilities generally have less access to rigorous courses
The wide gap between charter and traditional public schools in the percentage of students with disabilities they enroll is largely at the K-8 level, with the percentage of high schoolers with disabilities basically level across charter and traditional public schools, according to the report. But the schools serve students with different types of disabilities.
Charter schools report higher percentages of students who have specific learning disabilities, other health impairments, emotional disturbances, and speech/language impairments compared to traditional public schools. These are students more likely to have access to a general education curriculum, including college preparation and assessments, according to the report.
Traditional public schools, meanwhile, enroll more students with autism and intellectual disabilities, and students who may be identified as having deaf/blindness, visual impairments, traumatic brain injuries, multiple disabilities, and more. Typically, these are students who need more support and services.
A larger percentage of students with disabilities in charter schools (4.4 percent) took at least one Advanced Placement class, between the academic years of 2014 and 2021, compared to those in public school settings (2.8 percent).
Meanwhile, fewer students with disabilities in charter schools were in dual enrollment programs compared to traditional public schools—a trend continuing from prior years, according to the report.
Across AP, dual enrollment, and International Baccalaureate classes, there’s “a substantial gap” between students with disabilities and those without who are accessing college and career prep, said Chase Nordengren, director of research at the Center for Learner Equity.
“There’s all these different pathways in post-secondary preparation now,” he said. “Do students with disabilities have equal access to all or any of them? And the answer unfortunately is no.”
In traditional public schools, 1.3 percent of students with disabilities were enrolled in gifted and talented programs, compared with 6.4 percent of students overall, the report states. In charters, less than 1 percent participated in gifted programs, compared to 2.4 percent overall. The data are similar to previous years, according to the report.
Students with disabilities get more general education time in charter schools
Charter schools have increased the proportion of students with disabilities they serve, but still lag behind public schools, the report shows.
“It’s of note to us that the trendline continues to hold, that that has not changed,” Coco said.
Charter schools enrolled 418,260 students with disabilities in the 2020-21 school year, an increase of 87,444 from 2018, according to the report.
But the gap remains—14 percent of students in traditional public schools are eligible for services under IDEA, compared to 11.5 percent in charter schools. Of the 44 states reporting data, 37 saw a higher proportion of students with disabilities enrolled in traditional public schools.
It’s notable, considering that there’s a “pretty significant difference,” Coco said, in the rates of students with disabilities who are in general education environments in charter schools versus traditional public schools. About 83 percent of students with disabilities in charter schools spend most of their time in general education settings, compared to 67 percent in traditional public schools. That has been consistent since about 2012, the report said.
The enrollment gap also depends on grade level, with the largest difference appearing in elementary and middle school, and basically disappearing by high school.
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