In Chester Upland, more than 20 percent of the districts students have special needs, driving up the cost.
They has apparently cherry picked oral language idiosyncrasies to pay themselves an additional $10,000/student. Per former CCC teacher.
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Chester Community Charter School chief executive officer David Clark, asked for comment, wrote that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to calculate separate special-education costs, because much of the special-needs instruction goes on alongside regular-education students in the regular classrooms.
Asked about the high percentage of speech- or language-impaired students, Clark said the schools special-education program has been audited numerous times by the state Education Department and received commendations for its efforts.
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For regular-education Chester Upland students this year, that figure is $9,858 per child.
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One big problem with the charter-funding formula, district officials say, is that it does not allow districts to use the actual number of their special-education students when calculating per-student special-education costs. Instead, the formula starts with the assumption that 16 percent of a districts students have special needs.
I feel terrible for the milies that have to endure the mess that is Chester Upland.
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That figure - 16 percent of district enrollment - is then divided into the districts special-needs expenses to establish a per-student cost. That amount is paid to the charter for special-needs students.
Lawrence Jones, president of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Public Charter Schools, said that could create a second class of students getting lower payments and lead to potentially substandard treatment for some.
Wrong Brinsley. This CCC operates as a public school only as r as the funding source, enjoys the benefits of being as a non-profit, and is operated as a private entity. Audit? They sued to keep their book a secret stating, " trade secret." Talk about having it both ways.
The special-education cost used to calculate Chester Uplands payments to charters this year was $17.3 million. The district could only count 16 percent of its students - 1,182 - in figuring its per-student special-education payments. That came out to $14,670 per student, added to the regular education per student cost of $9,858.
Does it seem idiotic to anyone else besides me that the formula makes assumptions for the % of special-needs students rather than using the actual %? And why are all S-N kids reimbursed the same? It makes sense (which is probably why no bureaucrats implemented it) that youd reimburse based on the actual cost of teaching a kid w/ a particular disability rather than averaging it out. It would cost more to teach profoundly disabled kids than the mildly disabled.
That is how the game works. I dont know about them suing to keep their books private, but if they did and won somehow, then the State needs to change the charter school law.
Chester Upland, by contrast, had 6.3 percent speech- or language-impaired students. So it has been left with a larger number of students with difficult - and expensive - impairments.
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technical schools in delaware Chester Upland: State special ed formula drains millions from district,As Delaware Countys financially troubled Chester Upland School District struggles to stay afloat, officials there say they are paying millions more than they should on special-education students who attend charter schools.
For the 657 Chester Upland special-education students at Chester Community Charter, which has by r the most district students, the district owes about $16.1 million this school year.
District officials argue it would be more ir if charters were reimbursed only for their actual expenses.
Chester Community Charter is a corrupt organization. Im sure the teachers are legit, but the ownership is just in it for the money. The administrative fees collected by owner Vahan Gureghian are obscene.
Its amazing that this article points at a flawed funding system that is also flawed in the vor of some school districts. Also, Mr. Hardy iled to mention that charters do not received funding for buildings, do not receive funds for debt service for buildings, are cut out of many grants given to districts, and are often not paid by districts. The ct is charters are public schools and are not draining money from the school system. In ct, they are serving children for less money. When will Mr. Hardy, Ms. Woodall, or any of the posters look for the real reasons that districts like Chester have beetechnical schools in delaware Chester Upland: State special ed formula drains millions from districtn mismanaged for decades. The waste and lack of services provided to the community are disgraceful. Just look for the truth.
School districts pay charters to teach their children, using a complicated formula set by state law. About 45 percent of Chester Uplands students attend charters.
District officials also contend they would save millions more if special-education payments to charters were based on the actual costs the charters incur, not those of providing special education in Chester Upland.
Phillypride has it right. There should be a complete audit of all of CCCSs funds and where every penny goes. They game the system at every turn including the special ed system.
Chester Uplands per-student special-education charter-school payment this year is $24,528, more than twice as much as for regular students and thousands per student more than the state average.
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Point guard, you should study your history, Edison Schools was given a contract to run Chesters schools and they ran it into the ground only to leave when their profits dried up.
If the actual number of Chester Uplands special-education students - more than 1,650 - were used to figure the per-student cost, that figure would have been cut by more than $4,000 per student, and the districts payments to charters would be millions less.
But flaws in the state charter-school law, district officials say, make payments to charter schools for special-education students much higher, costing Chester Upland about $8 million more than is reasonable.
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IN this file photo, parents, teachers, and concerned citizens turned out for a meeting of the Chester Upland School Board to show their concern for the school district which is in a dire financial situation. Tina Johnson, center, vents her feelings to the school board. ( Charles Fox / Staff Photographer ) SVIGIL13P, 01/12/2012, Chester Upland School District Administration Building, 17th and Melrose Ave., Chester, PA
At Chester Community, about 40 percent of special-needs children last year were classified as speech- or language-impaired, generally a relatively mild disability that usually costs less to remediate.
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brinsley, charter schools are privately run. they were created to avoid the silliness that comes with government regulation. btw, chester upland has already crashed and burned.
Having worked as an SLP in CCC for several years, I can say that it is the only place Ive ever worked that actually provided the services I recommended for special needs children. At most other schools, I have been pressured into reducing the level of service for children because there wasnt enough staff, money, or time to do what was best for that child. Communication and language are the foundations for academic, vocational, and social success. Shame on CU for criticizing the level of services provided at CCC - they should be providing it themselves.
Chester Community Charter School games the system at every turn. They game the special ed system by classifying many regular students as special ed. Then they do not give them any special services. They just collect more money for those students, and of course, direct that money into Vahans side organizations.
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Chester Uplands payments are based on the previous years expense of educating students in its own schools, minus some costs charters do not incur.
Chester Utechnical schools in delawarepland has a higher percentage of severely disabled students than the charters do. Many are accompanied by aides; some are deaf, blind, or severely autistic. Costs averaged more than $24,000 per student for the most severely disabled cohort.
The school, he said, has an unflagging commitment to providing adequate services for all its special-education students. And it has developed programs within our school walls that provide effective special-education services for all children, regardless of their disability.
Lets try this again...Chester-Upland is the picture of entitlement. Parents and children of Saint Huberts are to be applauded for their efforts to raise over $700,000 for their school. Other than demand entitlements, what have the parents and children of Chester-Upland done for their school? I guess that is the biggest difference between tax-payers and tax-consumers...
The Corbett administration, while not going that r, has suggested creating three payment levels for charter special-education students in distressed districts. More would be paid for the most severely disabled students and the least for speech- or language-impaired children.
st eddy and his band of merry men must have missed the flaw because they were to busy worring about the soccer stadium !!!!!!!!
