Issue Paper on Dispute Resolution Regarding Admission of Charter Schools into Special Education Local Plan Areas as Local Education Agency Members

Advisory Commission on Charter Schools

Meeting of August 22, 2002

Background. Currently, individual special education local plan area (SELPA) plans are required to include provisions relating to charter schools, including the admission of charter schools as local education agency (LEA) members.[1] In this regard, the question arises as to whether there would be value in having a uniform, statewide process for the narrow purpose of resolving disputes relating to admission. Clearly, when existing SELPA members sit in judgment as to whether an applicant charter school has met criteria for admission, and when existing SELPA members may experience changes in funding levels or service relationships as the result of a charter school’s admission to a SELPA, the potential exists for disputes to arise regarding admission determinations and conditions.

Proposal. Given this background, it may be appropriate – in the event local efforts at resolution are unsuccessful or not progressing in a timely manner – to have a uniform, statewide process for dispute resolution that is perceived as knowledgeable and fair. Toward that end, the following outline is offered as the basis for discussion about the establishment of such a narrowly crafted dispute resolution process.

Dates are included in this proposal to provide an idea for a possible timeline. However, the main idea is that the process (1) would take place entirely within the fiscal year preceding the anticipated entry of a charter school into a SELPA and (2) would reach finality well prior (at least 90 days) to the beginning of the fiscal year in which the charter school is to be an LEA member of the SELPA.

1. By November 1, a charter school that is either (1) currently in operation as a school within an LEA for special education purposes or (2) intends to be operational in the forthcoming fiscal year – AND that desires to be an LEA member of a SELPA – submits a formal application to the SELPA.

2. The application would include certain standardized information – and, perhaps, be on a form issued by the CDE. The standardized information would include:

· A proposal as to how the charter school will function as an LEA within the SELPA;

· What the charter school reasonably anticipates with respect to the types of disabilities among and service-delivery settings for its students; and

· The changes that the proposal would imply for the SELPA's existing allocation plan and/or other arrangements.

The idea is that the charter school would have to prepare a proposal that reflects a degree of study and understanding of what the SELPA is and how it functions. Development of the proposal would help ensure that the charter school recognizes the SELPA’s responsibility to provide programs and services through age 21, and consideration of the proposal would help ensure that the SELPA recognizes realistically the effect the charter school’s operation may have on the region’s special education population and the resources the charter school would bring to bear in serving that population.

3. Between November 1 and January 1, the SELPA and the charter school endeavor to negotiate any differences that may exist and reach a mutually agreeable arrangement for the charter school's admission to the SELPA effective the following July 1.

4. If there is impasse on January 1, then the SELPA and the charter school would prepare in writing their “best offers” (by January 15). A state mediator would endeavor to facilitate a solution (by February 1). [It is our understanding that state mediation services are available free of charge.]

5. If there is still impasse on February 1, the SELPA's and charter school's “best offers” – combined with any comments, suggestions, and/or recommendations the mediator might have – are turned over to the State Director of Special Education. The State Director would convene meetings and otherwise gather any needed information over the following month and, by March 1, issue a binding decision regarding the charter school's admission to the SELPA effective July 1. The decision would address all outstanding issues, requiring the charter school to abide by certain conditions and the SELPA to take certain actions as may be necessary fairly (in the State Director’s best judgment) to effectuate the charter school’s admission to the SELPA.

Positive features:

• Provide a uniform process to address the admission of charter schools into SELPAs in a manner that emphasizes local decision making as the preferred pathway.
• Ensure that charter schools and SELPAs understand one another at more than a superficial level.
• Ensure that adequate (but not unnecessarily extravagant) time is taken for consideration.
• Ensure that a conclusion is reached, i.e., that the process has an end.
• Ensure that the conclusion is as fair and as comprehensive as it can realistically be, given that reasonable people can look at the same situations and circumstances yet disagree as to their meaning and implications.
• Ensure that if a conclusion needs to be reached by a third party, that the conclusion clearly establishes the conditions applicable to the charter school and to the SELPA.
• Provide a basis for keeping the question of a charter school’s membership in a SELPA (and the conditions for that membership) an objective one that is professionally considered and resolved.

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[1] Every SELPA plan must have within it a process for internal dispute resolution, but these processes cannot (by their nature) address the issue of admission.