Volume 4 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal of K-12 Educational Research - Page 55

Journal of K-12 Educational Research 53 education, and the percentage of special education students in Texas charter schools rose to 6.9%, an increase of 2,049 students in special education (TEA, 2018a). While multiple studies have been conducted on charter schools nationwide, few comprehensive studies have been conducted on charter schools in the state of Texas. One such study was the CREDO report published in 2017. The report provided a comparison of the academic outcomes of charter schools and traditional public schools in the state of Texas and found students in special education in charter schools exhibited equal or lesser growth in reading and math compared to their comparison group in TPS. However, students in special education enrolled in an open-enrollment charter school, operating as its own LEA, had significantly worse outcomes in reading and math than those in TPS (CREDO, 2017). Ensuring students with disabilities have access to high quality education in charter schools is a challenge both nationally and in the state of Texas. Meeting the needs of special education students remains a challenge for all schools in the state, including charter schools that have the mission of cultivating innovative, high-quality learning opportunities. A review of the literature reveals charter schools nationwide and in Texas are slowly making progress toward equitably enrolling and educating students with disabilities. Summary of Methodology In order to explore the perceptions of general education teachers in North Texas, the researcher used a questionnaire of 10 questions created on SurveyMonkey. Participants for the perception questionnaire were general education classroom teachers employed in regular instructional charter schools in Region 10. The total number of participants equaled 144. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect and analyze the participants’ perceptions using Excel to report quantitative data with graphs and charts and qualitative data with emerging themes and parent and child nodes for each recurring theme identified. Summary of Findings and Interpretation of Results The research question used in the current study asked the following: What are the perceptions of general education teachers in charter school campuses in North Texas regarding the identification of and services provided to special education students on their campus as well as their perceptions of support and self-efficacy in educating students with disabilities? Using a convergent parallel design, the researcher analyzed the responses from the perception questionnaire to determine if alignment exists with the recent studies regarding charter schools and students with disabilities. Identification The current study results revealed 48% of the participants felt the process of identification for special education was either too long or much too long, while 42% felt it was about the right length of time. Thirty-six percent of the participants also felt the process for identification was somewhat difficult. When considering the timeframe for providing intervention to struggling students before beginning the process of identification or evaluation for special education, the majority, 53%, said it takes 0−6 months of intervention. Services The current study asked participants to choose the services their campus provides to special education students. This was important to the research because many studies have shown charter school campuses struggle to provide a continuum of services to special education students, particularly students with more severe disabilities (GAO, 2012; Porter, 2006; Rhim, Sutter, & Campbell, 2016). Speech- language therapy, dyslexia services, inclusion support, and school nurse services were the top four services reported by participants. These are services commonly provided to students with mild to moderate disabilities. The lowest four services reported were transportation, physical therapy, adaptive PE, and visual impairment services. These services are more commonly provided to students with severe disabilities. Six of the respondents chose “other”: four were unsure of other supports, one said all services are rarely provided, and another noted having only one inclusion teacher for 32 students.