New Orleans schools may centralize services for students with disabilities
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
New Orleans public school leaders are exploring a new, centralized strategy to connect students with disabilities to the critical services they need to be successful, regardless of where they enroll.
Why it matters: The city's unique charter school system means that resources generally aren't shared from school to school, and that's led to disparities for some New Orleans students.
The latest: The NOLA Public Schools board is expected to vote Thursday night to continue exploring the creation of an educational service agency, or an ESA.
- That would allow the individual charter schools to pool resources for students with disabilities rather than fight over a limited number of service providers or worry about the cost of expensive therapies for a single student.
Zoom in: In a new Center for Learner Equity survey, which offers the ESA as a solution, New Orleans educators say the siloing of their charter schools creates natural inefficiencies.
- "The reality is, we all end up with sub-par programs everywhere," one CEO from a small charter school said in the survey. "Our current model does not incentivize schools to create specialized programs."
- But, the survey results say, the vast majority of educators feel they'd benefit from a centralized system for these resources, because too often an individual school can't financially sustain the various therapists, expertise or equipment different students might need at different times.
What they're saying: "I've been in and around the school system for over a decade as an advocate and thought partner on difficult, challenging questions about how to maximize outcomes for kids," says Center for Learner Equity senior director of strategy and impact Jennifer Coco, "and this feels like a special moment to recognize a compelling solution to a long-documented problem."
Catch up quick: Hurricane Katrina changed New Orleans' public school system forever.
- After an initial state takeover, the system morphed into the nation's first all-charter system, with the school board serving as charter manager rather than directly operating schools.
- But that has started to shift.
- Just days ago, NOLA Public Schools opened the doors at the Leah Chase School, the first it has permanently operated in nearly two decades.
Between the lines: The charter system has been met with mixed reviews, and the creation of an ESA might read like an admission that independent charter schools aren't able to pull off every function of a school district.
- Coco, however, said the ESA would be more like "getting the best of both worlds."
- "We need more collective effort to reach kids with disabilities and make sure every school is prepared and ready to educate them," she said. "And we think this is helping us strike the right balance."
What's next: If the resolution passes, NOLA-PS would develop a plan outlining "what the ESA will look like in practice" by September, a spokesperson tells Axios New Orleans.
- That plan would give each member school "ownership of how they participate" in the program, and would put the ESA on track for a 2025 pilot launch, the spokesperson says.