Reply #24: Ours are a mixed bag.

[donco6]

Most are white-flight charters with:

extremely strict attendance policies, leading to "counseling out" (they never call it "expulsion")strict behavior handbooks with plenty of reasons for "counseling out"/expulsion
long applications for attendance with essays - all in English
preference for local kids (and they locate right next to the all-white suburb)
no ELL services, so monolingual English need not apply, even if they could read the app
limited special ed support, so no ED, high need kids need apply
limited available seats at upper grades - if you're not there as a Freshman, forget getting in as a Jr. or Sr. - even though those grade levels are half the size of the 9th grade.


Now, you may be asking what's wrong with any of this? Isn't this what we should have? Well, maybe. But the fact is, the local public school can't get away with ANY of this. You have to have ironclad reasons for expulsion from a regular public school, because there is no alternative at that point. You're denying access to education, and that's a serious situation. A charter can do it with impunity - because they don't call it expulsion, and there's always the public school to go back to.

I won't even go into the ELL and sped issues. Appalling.