tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967629618153500194.post5042230656911752017..comments2020-09-07T05:31:32.626-05:00Comments on Obsession with Education: Virtual schools, students with IEPs, and Wisconsin open enrollmentChan Stromanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16951679662253145601noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967629618153500194.post-13579437412893750442013-09-16T21:32:02.646-05:002013-09-16T21:32:02.646-05:00Virtual school recognizes the tremendous demands a...<a href="http://www.ontariovirtualschool.ca/" rel="nofollow">Virtual school</a> recognizes the tremendous demands and stress that students can experience throughout their high school lives. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049361952407246100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967629618153500194.post-65028588988040962212010-05-10T06:19:14.067-05:002010-05-10T06:19:14.067-05:00Thank you for your comment.
I had not included s...Thank you for your comment. <br /><br />I had not included school districts with very small total student enrollments in this examination of data. However, the DPI information for the Medford District's Rural Virtual Academy shows a total student enrollment for the 2009-10 school year of 16. The enrollment for students with disabilities for this school year is shown as 0 students/0%, down from 25% (2 students out of 8 total students enrolled) in 2008-09. The only other RVA school with enrollment numbers for 09-10 is the Rice Lake district, with 12.5% enrollment of student with disabilities out of 8 total students enrolled.<br /><br />My subsequent post on this issue ( http://eduphilia.blogspot.com/2010/04/virtual-charter-school-admissions-for.html ) analyzes more specific admissions and enrollment data, obtained by open records request from the DPI. It looks only at nonresident district denials (and not at resident district denials for undue financial burden). The denial numbers do not include de facto denials by nonresident school districts that use the non-appealable placement process to assign applicants to brick-and-mortar schools, which I've confirmed occurs as a practice in at least two of the school districts that have higher nominal acceptance percentages.<br /><br />The fundamental issue is that school districts that receive public/federal funds must comply with civil rights law. Policies and practices that discriminate against students on account of their disability are a civil rights violation. (That is not to say that there aren't instances in which a virtual school may not be an appropriate setting for a particular student given the specific nature of the student's disabilities, but the problem occurs when that conclusion is drawn using ad hoc, unwritten or inconsistently applied evaluation criteria, or when those standards are applied only to students with disabilities and not to students without disabilities for reasons not related to the school's fundamental educational purpose.) It's the responsibility of local education agencies and the state education agency to ensure that virtual school admissions and retention policies and practices do not unlawfully discriminate against students on account of their disability, but the lack of oversight and guidance is cause for concern and enables an environment in which discrimination can occur.Chan Stromanhttp://eduphilia.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967629618153500194.post-11930650516746203712010-05-09T12:27:18.999-05:002010-05-09T12:27:18.999-05:00I believe the bottom line is that virtual school s...I believe the bottom line is that virtual school serve children from all across the State. These children can be typically very remote from district who serves as the authorizer of the virtual charter. A child with a disability who may require services such as OT, PT, Speech & Lanuguage, etc. multiple times per week can not have these services given to them because of the distance and/or significatn cost associated. One aspect of this post you have over looked in the resident district's denial of application because of "financial burden". How many applications are accepted by virtual schools but later denied by the resident district because of undue financial burdens required to support the education of the child at a distance. An IEP is a legal document providing parents authority in how their child's disability is to be met, but one has to remember that a virtual school will not accept an application unless it is positive that they can provide the child all the services required, or else face the lawsuit soon to follow. Likewise, resident districts are not going to spend 3x-45x the amount to support the education of child outside of their district when they can do the job themselves at the local school. So much of this is not about "finding loop-holes" or schools not wanting to serve the needy, it is more about making sure that eveyone involved can deliver what they promise. Lastly, your summation of percentages of virtual school %'s neglects to add a few of the other virtual schools in the State with very high %'s of SPED students, including the RVA out of Medford, WI. The RVA's model of partnering with local school districts through 66.0301 shared services agreements is a model for other to learn from. These agreements exist outside of open enrollment and allow for IEP teams and services to remain in the resident district without extra costing.Concerned with the Factsnoreply@blogger.com