1. The Rights of Students with Disabilities in Public Charter Schools
Frequently Asked Questions
U. S. Department of Education
-Office of Special Education & Rehabilitative Services
-Office for Civil Rights

2. This Presentation… Provides general information;
Does not represent complete recitation of applicable law and policy;
Summarizes Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) documents issued by the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) and Office for Civil Rights (OCR);
Language used in these slides is approved for the purposes of this presentation only and should not be used for other purposes.
Consult FAQ documents directly for more information.

3. Introduction: Presentation Objectives
Presentation outlines information in two FAQ documents issued by ED to help parents, students, local educational agencies (LEA), State educational agencies (SEA), charter schools, and others better understand the rights of students with disabilities in public charter schools under Federal laws:
OSERS FAQ document about rights and responsibilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA); and,
OCR FAQ document about rights and responsibilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504).

4. Introduction: Separate FAQ Documents on IDEA and Section 504
Both IDEA and Section 504 ensure rights of students with disabilities.
ED issued separate, coordinated FAQ documents because the two laws differ in terms of purpose, population of students covered, and requirements.
OSERS will first present on IDEA;
OCR will next present on Section 504;
Joint question and answer session.

5. Rights of Students with Disabilities in Public Charter Schools
OSERS Presenters
Office of Special Education & Rehabilitative Services/
Office of Special Education Programs
Rights of Students with Disabilities
in Public Charter Schools
OSERS Presenters:
Laura Duos and Susan Murray

6. Treatment of Charter Schools under IDEA
Charter school, as used in IDEA, has the meaning of “charter school” as defined in ESEANCLBESSA
Three options under IDEA Part B regulations:
1) charter schools can be public schools of the LEA;
2) charter schools can be LEAs themselves; or
3) charter schools can be nonprofit entities that are neither LEAs nor schools of an LEA

7. IDEA: Rights of children with disabilities in charter schools
Students with disabilities attending charter schools and their parents retain all rights and protections under Part B of IDEA that they would have if attending other public schools.

8. IDEA  State Laws
IDEA’s general supervision requirements: States must ensure that charter school LEAs and LEAs that include charter schools meet all their responsibilities under Part B of IDEA
Complex and varied State charter laws and State structures

9. IDEA funds flow by formula to States
OSEP supports SEAs in ensuring that:
Charter schools provide equitable access to children with disabilities and their families;
Charter schools appropriately, in accordance with State law, receive IDEA funds and/or support services, as required by IDEA and by the Charter School Expansion Act; and
Children with disabilities in charter schools have access to a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.

10. IDEA definitions and requirements apply
Child with a Disability
Evaluation/Reevaluation
Free Appropriate Public Education--FAPE
IEP Requirements
Least Restrictive Environment—IEP
Placement Decisions

11. FAPE
Under IDEA, all students with disabilities, including charter school students with disabilities, must receive FAPE.
A charter school may not unilaterally limit the services it will provide a particular student with a disability.
The responsible charter school LEA, or the LEA that includes the charter school, must provide a program of FAPE for the student in the least restrictive environment in which the student’s IEP can be implemented.

12. Placement
Charter schools that are LEAs are responsible for ensuring that the IEP and placement requirements of Part B of IDEA are met, unless State law assigns responsibility to some other entity.
When a charter school is a public school of an LEA, the LEA in which the charter school is located is responsible for implementing a child’s IEP and placement, unless State law assigns responsibility to some other entity.

13. Child Find Requirements
What happens if a charter school suspects that one of its students may be a child with a disability?

14. Procedural Safeguards
What procedural safeguards must be provided to children with disabilities attending charter schools and their parents under IDEA?
How does an IEP Team address the needs of a child with a disability attending a charter school if the child’s behavior impedes the child’s learning or that of others?
What disciplinary procedures apply to children with disabilities attending charter schools?

15. IDEA Funding
Are charter school LEAs eligible to receive subgrants under Part B of IDEA?
What eligibility requirements must a charter school LEA meet in order to receive funds under Part B of IDEA?
Do children with disabilities who attend a charter school that does not receive Part B of IDEA funds from the SEA retain their rights under Part B of IDEA?
Does Part B of IDEA contain any provisions to ensure that newly-created charter school LEAs receive the funds for which they are eligible?
How are base payments calculated for charter school LEAs under IDEA?
How are base payment adjustments made for new or expanding charter school LEAs?

16. IDEA Funding…more
How does an SEA calculate the population payment for a new or expanded charter school LEA under the formulas?
How does an SEA calculate the poverty payment for a new or expanded charter school LEA under the formulas?
May an eligible charter school LEA receive an IDEA subgrant even if the charter school LEA is not serving any children with disabilities?
Are there funding requirements in Part B of IDEA that apply to LEAs that have charter schools that are public schools within the LEA?
Are LEAs required to allocate Part B funds to eligible new or expanding charter schools that are public schools within an LEA? What if the LEA provides Part B funds to its other public schools?

17. Charter School Closures
When a charter school LEA that has received an IDEA Part B subgrant closes, what happens to those funds?
If a charter school closes, or if a closing is imminent, what responsibilities does the charter school have with regard to equipment purchased with IDEA funds for children with disabilities?
If a charter school closes or if a closing is imminent, what responsibilities does the charter school have with regard to its records for children with disabilities?
If a charter school closes, how does an LEA or SEA ensure that children with disabilities who attended the closed charter school continue to receive FAPE?

18. IDEA Charter School Resources
IDEA Charter guidance
Know Your Rights document
IDEA funds and charter school resources on GRADS 360
, (800) (TDD)

19. Rights of Students with Disabilities in Public Charter Schools
OCR Presenters
Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
Rights of Students with Disabilities
in Public Charter Schools
OCR Presenters:
Doreen Dennis and Elizabeth Greczek

20. Introduction: OCR OCR:
Office within ED that enforces the Federal civil rights laws, including laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age, that apply to programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance from ED; by delegation from Department of Justice, enforces a Federal civil rights law prohibiting disability discrimination by State or local public entities.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C.; 12 regional offices;
Investigates/resolves complaints alleging discrimination;
Conducts OCR-initiated compliance reviews;
Provides technical assistance.

21. Introduction: OCR Compliance Determinations
OCR’s determinations of compliance depend on specific facts found and a case- by-case evaluation of those facts.
This presentation outlines the general information in OCR’s FAQ document, but cannot provide specific determinations about compliance.

22. Introduction: Section 504
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance from ED;
Applies to local educational agencies (LEAs) that receive federal financial assistance (including charter school LEAs, as well as traditional LEAs with charter schools).
OCR also enforces Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (Title II), by delegation from the Department of Justice.
Title II:
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by State or local public entities regardless of whether they receive Federal funds;
Applies to LEAs, SEAs, and public charter schools regardless of whether they receive Federal funds.

23. Section 504: Rights
Charter school students with disabilities (and those seeking to attend) have the same Section 504 and Title II rights as other public school students with disabilities in elementary and secondary education.
OCR enforces the Section 504 and Title II rights of IDEA-eligible students and “Section 504 only” students with disabilities who are not eligible under the IDEA; OCR does not enforce the IDEA.
Violations of Section 504 are generally violations of Title II also. For the sake of simplicity, this presentation focuses on Section 504.

24. Section 504: Rights (continued)
OCR’s FAQ on the rights of students with disabilities in public charter schools under Section 504 does not establish new rights or requirements.
Rather, the FAQ explains existing legal rights and requirements under the Section 504 statute and ED’s Section 504 regulations in the context of public charter schools.

25. Section 504: Public Charter School Students with Disabilities Protected
Section 504 protects all qualified students with disabilities in charter schools from discrimination.
Section 504 defines disability and qualified.

26. Section 504: Student with a Disability
Person with a disability:
Has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity;
Has a record of such impairment; or
Is regarded as having such an impairment.
Next slide addresses qualified.

27. Section 504: Qualified Student with a Disability
For the purposes of public elementary or secondary educational services, a person with a disability is qualified based primarily on age; specifically, if the person is:
Of an age at which students without disabilities are provided elementary or secondary educational services;
Of an age for which it is mandatory under State law to provide elementary and secondary educational services to students with disabilities; or
A person to whom a State is required to provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) under the IDEA.

28. Section 504: Nondiscrimination and Equal Opportunity, Generally
Prohibits treating qualified persons with disabilities differently than persons without disabilities on the basis of disability unless the different treatment is necessary to provide the person with a disability with aid, benefits, or services that are as effective as those provided to others;
Prohibits criteria, policies, practices, and procedures that are neutral in language and evenhandedly implemented but have the effect of discriminating against students on the basis of disability.

29. Section 504: Recruitment
Section 504 requires charter schools to conduct any recruitment in a nondiscriminatory manner, including:
Nondiscriminatory content of recruitment materials, including information provided on a web site;
Accessibility of materials to persons with disabilities with visual impairments;
Accessibility of meeting sites to persons with disabilities with mobility impairments;
Provision of auxiliary aids and services, e.g., sign language interpreters for persons who are deaf, upon reasonable advance notice, for recruitment meetings.

30. Section 504: Application
Section 504 requires charter schools to provide the opportunity to apply to a charter school in a manner that does not discriminate on the basis of disability.
Nondiscriminatory application procedures include ensuring that persons with disabilities have an equal opportunity to fill out and submit applications, including:
Ensuring accessibility of hard-copy applications, for example by providing large print applications for persons with low vision, and, as another example, ensuring that web-based applications are designed to be compatible with screen reader technology used by persons who are blind.

31. Section 504: Admissions and Enrollment, Generally
Prohibitions against disability discrimination apply to all aspects of application, admission, and enrollment-related activities.
Requirements related to admissions procedures are separate from requirements related to Section 504 FAPE requirements for placements.
Section 504 also prohibits disability discrimination in charter school disenrollment criteria, policies, practices, and procedures.

32. Section 504: Admission and Enrollment, Criteria, Policies, Practices, and Procedures
Section 504 prohibitions include:
Admissions criteria, policies, practices, or procedures that explicitly exclude students on the basis of disability;
Admissions criteria, policies, practices, or procedures that exclude students on the basis of disability;
Admissions criteria, policies, practices, or procedures that exclude any student because the student needs special education or related aids or services to ensure FAPE;
Admissions criteria, policies, practices, or procedures neutral in language and evenhandedly implemented with respect to students with and without disabilities, but that have the effect of discriminating against students on the basis of disability.

33. Section 504: Admissions and Enrollment, Criteria, Policies, Practices, and Procedures (continued)
In the context of admissions and enrollment, Section 504 requires reasonable modifications of criteria, policies, practices, and procedures of general applicability when necessary to avoid disability discrimination, subject to the fundamental alteration limitation.
Section 504 prohibits an admission or enrollment criterion, policy, practice, or procedure that excludes any student because the student needs a reasonable modification, e.g., excluding a student who needs a reasonable modification to participate in interscholastic athletics.

34. Section 504: Questions about Prospective Student’s Disability Generally Prohibited During the Application Process
During the application and admissions process, a charter school generally may not ask a prospective student if he or she has a disability.
Limited exceptions:
Remedial action after an OCR finding of disability discrimination;
Voluntary action to overcome the effects or conditions that resulted in limited participation in the recipient’s program by qualified persons with disabilities; or
A charter school, chartered to serve the educational needs of students with a particular disability, may ask prospective students if they have that specific disability.

35. Section 504: Questions about Disability After Enrollment
When a student with a disability is admitted to and enrolls in a charter school, the student is entitled to FAPE under Section 504.
After enrollment, a charter school may ask if a student has a disability.

36. Section 504: Counseling Out on the Basis of Disability Prohibited
Section 504 prohibits “counseling out,” meaning:
trying to influence a prospective student with a disability not to apply to or enroll in a charter school because the student has a disability; or
trying to influence an enrolled student to transfer to another school because the student has a disability.
A decision about placement for a particular student with a disability, consistent with Section 504 FAPE requirements, is distinguishable from counseling out.

37. Section 504: Right to FAPE
Provision of FAPE under Section 504 includes requirements to:
(1) provide a student with a disability regular or special education and related aids and services that are designed to meet the student’s individual educational needs as adequately as the needs of students without disabilities are met; and
(2) comply with Section 504 requirements pertaining to evaluation and placement, educational setting, and procedural safeguards.
Implementation of an individualized education program (IEP) developed in accordance with the IDEA is one means of meeting the first standard.

38. Section 504: FAPE Evaluation
Under Section 504, if a charter school student needs, or the recipient has reason to believe the student needs, special education or related aids or services because of a disability, the recipient must conduct an evaluation.
An evaluation is required prior to an initial placement of the student in regular or special education and prior to any subsequent significant change in placement.
Section 504 requires recipients to establish procedures for periodic reevaluations; a reevaluation procedure consistent with IDEA is one means of meeting this requirement.

39. Section 504: FAPE Educational Placement and Setting
Educational placement is an individualized decision about what educational and related aids and services a student with a disability needs.
Placement decisions must be made by a group of persons knowledgeable about the student, the meaning of the evaluation data, and the placement options.
Charter school students with disabilities must be educated with students without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate to the needs of the student with a disability.
A student with a disability is entitled to be placed in the charter school regular educational environment unless the recipient demonstrates that education of the student cannot be achieved satisfactorily, even with the use of supplementary services, in the charter school’s regular educational environment.

40. Section 504: FAPE Procedural Safeguards
Recipients are required to develop and implement a system of procedural safeguards to address FAPE concerns specifically, such as the identification, evaluation, and educational placement of students with disabilities.
Procedural safeguards include: notice; an opportunity for records review by parents or guardians; an impartial due process hearing, with an opportunity for participation by the student’s parents or guardian and representation by counsel; and a review procedure.
Compliance with the procedural safeguards of IDEA is one means for a recipient to meet this Section 504 requirement.

41. Section 504: Nonacademic and Extracurricular Services and Activities
Section 504 requires nondiscrimination and equal opportunity for charter school students with disabilities in nonacademic and extracurricular services and activities.
Examples of such services and activities include:
Counseling services (other than counseling services required to provide FAPE, which are covered by the FAPE requirements);
Health services (other than health services required to provide FAPE, which are covered by the FAPE requirements);
School clubs; and
Interscholastic athletics.

42. Section 504: Accessibility of Charter School Programs and Facilities
Recipients are required to ensure that students and others with disabilities, including parents, are not denied access to the school’s programs or activities because of inaccessible facilities, including academic buildings, walkways, restrooms, athletic facilities, and parking spaces.
The specific requirements recipients must meet to ensure that programs or activities are accessible depends on the date a building was built or altered.
Section 504 incorporates specific physical accessibility requirements for facilities constructed or altered by, on behalf of, or for the use of a recipient if the construction or alteration commenced after June 3, 1977.

43. Section 504: Accessibility of Charter School Programs and Facilities (continued)
Regardless of when a charter school’s facilities were built or altered, the recipient must ensure that qualified persons with disabilities are not excluded from, or denied participation in, the recipient’s program or activity because the facility is inaccessible or unusable by persons with disabilities.
Examples of ways to comply with this requirement include reassignment of classes and other services to an accessible floor of the charter school facility, or alteration of existing charter school facilities or construction of new charter school facilities that meet accessibility requirements.

44. Section 504: Administrative Requirements
Recipients that employ 15 or more persons (regardless of whether the recipient’s program includes charter schools, traditional schools, or both) are subject to the following administrative requirements:
Designation of, and appropriate notification about, responsible employee to coordinate compliance with Section 504 (Section 504 coordinator);
Adoption of grievance procedures that incorporate appropriate due process standards and that provide for the prompt and equitable resolution of complaints alleging a violation of Section 504; and
Notice that the recipient does not discriminate on the basis of disability in violation of Section 504.

45. Section 504: Prohibition Against Retaliation
Section 504 protects charter school students with a disability and their parents from retaliation for exercising, or seeking to exercise, rights to nondiscrimination:
Recipients are prohibited from retaliating against any person for the purpose of interfering with any right or privilege under Section 504, or because the person has made a complaint, testified, assisted or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding or hearing under Section 504.

46. Section 504: Resources for More Information
OCR FAQ about the rights of students with disabilities in public charter schools under Section 504, charter-school.pdf (includes information about how to file a complaint of discrimination and contact information);
Joint OCR-OSERS Know Your Rights: Students with Disabilities in Charter Schools, charter-school.pdf (includes information about how to file a complaint of discrimination and contact information).

47. Section 504: Resources for More Information (continued)
For assistance related to civil rights, you may contact the OCR headquarters office in Washington D.C. or the OCR enforcement office serving your State or territory.
OCR contact information is available at: or by phone at ; TDD
OCR’s web site contains information about other civil rights topics,

48. Questions/Discussion
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