D.C. Charter Leader Objects To Plan Setting Aside Seats For At-Risk Students

[Jefferson23]

By: Martin Austermuhle
August 22, 2014


The leader of the D.C. Public Charter School Board is objecting to a provision in a broader plan to change the city's school boundaries that could affect what type of students charter schools admit.

In a series of tweets this morning, Scott Pearson, the executive director of the board, said he opposed setting aside seats for at-risk students at certain charter schools, arguing that the policy had not been properly studied.

Though the changes to school boundaries and feeder patterns primarily affect the city's traditional public schools, one provision adopted by Mayor Vincent Gray would require any school — traditional, selective admission or charter — with less than 25 percent at-risk students to give priority to at-risk students for 25 percent of seats in lottery admissions.

An at-risk student is defined as one who is homeless, in foster care, whose family is receiving welfare benefits or food stamps, or is in high school and a year behind their peers. Currently, 43 percent of all D.C. students are considered at-risk.

City officials say that the provision — along with requirements for a certain amount of seats for out-of-boundary students at all schools — would ensure that students facing difficult circumstances could attend the city's best-performing schools. There has been an increased emphasis on the needs of at-risk students; $116 million in additional funding is being directed to at-risk students in the school year beginning next week.

remainder: http://wamu.org/news/14/08/22/charter_leader_objects_to_dc_requirement_for_set_asides_for_as_risk_students