CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Another type of charter school could be established in the state specifically for those who are considered “at-risk” students.
The Senate Education Committee recently passed Senate Bill 89 authorizing alternative high-risk public charter schools. The bill next heads to the Senate Finance Committee.
The bill states that in order for a student in a certain public school to be eligible to attend this kind of charter school, the public school must have at least 70% of their total enrollment upon first entry be comprised of high-risk students.
The bill also sets forth which students qualify as “high-risk,” with its definition including homeless students and foster youth.
Senate Education Committee Chair Amy Nichole Grady said this is creating a different type of charter school, but the same rules apply, it gives an option for enrollment in this school.
“If you have a student who is removed from their public school for behavior incidences or something like that, this is an option for a parent to enroll them in this, they don’t automatically get enrolled by the county, so the county doesn’t make that decision it’s the parent’s decision,” Grady said.
One question was brought before the committee as to whether these charter schools would apply to the School Discipline Bill that recently completed its course of legislative action.
In that bill, teachers would be permitted to send disruptive students to an alternative learning environment. Grady said this would be an alternative school option within that bill.
Mingo County Senator Craig Hart said he finds it troubling how “at-risk” students are defined in the bill, and seems to lump all homeless and foster students in with that definition, which shouldn’t be the case, because not all displaced students should be considered problematic.
“Placing children who are having the hardest times, and may be considered the poorest of the poor in with groups of children who may be suspended or expelled, drop-outs, truant, I find this to be a very troubling thing with line 16 and 17, I would like this bill a lot more if those are out, as it is, I will be a no vote,” Hart said.
Wayne County Senator Scott Fuller agreed. He believes this language could potentially be problematic.
Fuller said all students of all economic classes can be considered problem children.
“There are some in here that meet that criteria, but I just feel like when you talk about the homeless youth, when they say trailer park, you know, especially in West Virginia, there’s a lot of trailer parks, and I just think it makes them look bad,” Fuller said.
Another potential issue that was brought up regarding these types of charter schools was the cost.
The question of whether these schools would be more expensive than other charter schools considering certain therapeutic needs was presented. However, Grady said there should be no difference in funding, and the consideration of those specific needs would still be fit into the budget for these schools.
She said the same would go for the other questions presented during the committee meeting regarding transportation to and from these schools, staffing, among other areas– it’s all the same format as other charter schools, but specifically specializes in these particular high-risk youth.
“It would be handled the same way that current charter schools are handled, so this is not any different than what are current charter schools would be and have to go through with the process, except they focus on these types of students, so they could offer the types of services these students need,” she said.
Grady said the first of these kinds of charter schools could be operated under a pilot program and go through a trial and error process to see how it works.
She said they hope to get to a point where they have several of these schools available across the state.
“In a perfect world, they would at least be established regionally, but the goal is to open them up as an option, of course it has to be approved and it has to have a plan,” said Grady.
For a charter school of this kind to open, it would need approval from the Charter School Board certifying that it meets the “high-risk” student criteria.
Passing the bill this session would require it to be out of the Senate by Wednesday’s crossover day.