Reply #100: It might vary by state or district

[noamnety]

It might also depend if the school is part of an existing school district (like a magnet school) in which case the district can decide who gets in, vs. being an independent school district in and of itself, in which case you have to admit anyone, because your district doesn't provide other alternatives.

I'm just asking that you don't assume all charter schools are private, or exclusive, because it definitely isn't the case for all of them. We can't refuse admission to any student that's eligible for public schools, and we get our share of high maintenance, autistic, LD, etc. students. We might even get more than our share, because sometimes the traditional public school is their first choice, and if they are failing there, the principal at the traditional school will try to get rid of them by recommending to the parents that they use us as an alternative school, even though that's not our mission. (We have a specific educational goal which is unrelated to whether a student is or isn't LD.)

Charter schools have a reputation of sucking away the highest achievers, but the reality is that traditional schools just as often take advantage of our existence by trying to shove off their worst test takers onto us so they have a better chance of meeting the NCLB criteria. And then they wonder why some charters (not ours, lucky for me) achieve lower test scores - they are sending us the kids that don't score well to begin with!

So while I am opposed to vouchers for private schools for a number of reasons, charters aren't taking money away from public schools - they ARE public schools (around these parts, anyway), and they are open to anyone.

(okay, end of rant.)