The federal government’s investigative arm has found that charter schools in Connecticut and 27 other states enroll fewer students with disabilities than public schools. In Connecticut, the difference is 3 percent.

In a letter released with the report, U.S. Department of Education officials said they will be issuing guidance to charter schools on their obligation to serve such students.

Earlier this year, the Connecticut Mirror reported each charter school in the state’s student demographics, which showed that special education and English language learning students were enrolled at much lower rates than the public school district where they were located.

The new education reform law, which was signed by the governor last month, does partially address this discrepancy in enrollment. The law requires that when the State Department of Education is considering which charter schools are allowed to open, they give preference to charter applications that have “strategies or a record of success” in teaching special education, English language learners, those from low-income families or those with low-academic performance. There are no enrollment requirements that the student demographics mirror the traditional public schools.

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Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.

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