Arizona Charter Schools Discriminate, Says New Report

Hundreds of charter schools in Arizona have policies that are illegal or wrongly discourage the enrollment of certain students, according to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona. The organization examined the policies of 471 schools and concluded 56 percent, or 262 schools, were in that category.

The ACLU also found six schools that put a limit on the number of special needs students that they will enroll. That is a violation of both federal and state laws.

" 'School choice' means that families should be choosing schools, not the other way around," said the executive director of the ACLU of Arizona, Alessandra Soler.

"But Arizona's charter schools, and the state agencies they're accountable to, have ignored deeply troubling and sometimes illegal enrollment policies that deny low-income students, English learners, students with disabilities, and other vulnerable student populations, opportunities to attend the schools of their choice."

Among the findings of the report, "Schools Choosing Students: How Arizona Charter Schools Engage in Illegal and Exclusionary Student Enrollment Practices and How It Should Be Fixed," are:

• At least 59 Arizona charter schools refuse to admit students with prior suspensions or imply that prior suspensions could affect their admission, even though Arizona law only allows students to be denied enrollment at charter schools if they have been expelled;
• At least 88 Arizona charter schools require essays or interviews as part of the enrollment process and do not state that a student’s performance on these activities will not impact their admission;
• The most commonly spoken language in Arizona other than English is Spanish, yet only 26 percent of the 123 Arizona charter schools reviewed provide enrollment documents in both languages.
• Furthermore, 72 Arizona charter schools do not make their enrollment materials available online and did not respond to the ACLU of Arizona’s requests for public records, violating their obligations under the state’s public records law and making it impossible to analyze these schools on most or all enrollment metrics.

The Arizona Charter Schools Association says the ACLU report is nothing more than an attack on charter schools.

"It is clear this attack makes broad-brush accusations that do not violate the law and are misleading," the president and CEO of the Arizona Charter Schools Association, Eileen Sigmund, says. "The reason is simple: The ACLU has an anti-charter agenda.

"Arizona charter schools are public schools and open to every Arizona family. That is the law and has been the guiding principal behind the charter movement over the past two decades."

The ACLU report also makes several recommendations, including the creation of a common application to be used by all public charter schools.

"This report should be a wake-up call to Arizona charter schools that they are not fulfilling their 'school choice' promise," said Soler.

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