LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada’s charter schools have grown in popularity but fall short when it comes to serving more vulnerable students, a new study says.
The state’s charter schools serve significantly lower percentages of the most challenging students than the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, according to an analysis by the Las Vegas Review-Journal of statewide figures for the 2017-18 school year.
This includes students with disabilities, English language learners and children who get free or reduced-price lunches.
One problem is finding land to build a school, and also providing transportation, which most charter schools do not offer, according to state charter officials.
Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools must pay for land and facilities without aid from the state or real estate developers. As a result, schools tend to open on the outskirts in newer, more affluent communities.
Charter schools in Clark County are granted their existence from one of three authorizers: the State Public Charter School Authority, the Clark County School District or the Achievement School District.
Charter Authority Chairman Jason Guinasso said the agency is working to improve outreach to underserved communities, particularly those with high percentages of poor students.
“Most families that are poor are just thinking about surviving,” he said. “So I think we’ve got to do a better job of an outreach to those families so that, No. 1, they know that the option exists.”
“We want to do better, we’ve got to do better and we are going to do better,” he said.
There may be more poor students attending charter schools than state numbers show, however. Many charters do not offer free or reduced-price lunch, and therefore parents may not bother to fill out an eligibility form.
Since the authority began using other methods to find students who would be eligible for free or reduced lunch, that subgroup has increased statewide from roughly 22 percent last school year to 33 percent this year.
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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
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