Fri. Nov 8th, 2024

Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva and State Education Board member member Randy Henderson

State Education Board member Randy Henderson (left) and Education Secretary Jacob Oliva (right) listen to public testimony during a state board meeting on Mar. 9, 2023.

(Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)

The Arkansas State Board of Education on Thursday placed a Delta charter school on probation for violating standards of accreditation related to providing special education services.

The board unanimously approved a motion to sanction KIPP Delta Public Schools for not complying with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and for not offering a full continuum of special education services as required by that law. 

A complaint filed by a parent in June 2023 resulted in an investigation and final report in August 2023 that provided a corrective action plan. Matt Sewell, assistant commissioner for federal programs and special education, said all submissions from the district for corrective actions were late, many were incomplete and several still have not been completed. 

Another complaint was filed on Sept. 3, 2024. It resulted in another investigation and an on-site visit Oct. 2 during which state officials determined no related services were being provided to students eligible for an Individualized Education Program (IEP), Sewell said.

Teacher salary funding concerns remain for rural Arkansas school districts

An IEP is designed to ensure each eligible child with a disability has access to “free appropriate public education” (FAPE) that emphasizes special education and related services that meet a child’s unique needs, according to the U.S. Department of Education

While KIPP Delta’s executive director provided in-person testimony to the state education board Thursday, Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva noted the IEP is a contract that the open-enrollment public charter school district has been violating by not providing required services. Oliva said the district is also violating its contract with the state (its charter) and said he thought Kipp Delta should go before the state’s Charter School Authorizing Panel.

“I’m a big proponent of school choice. I think I’ve been very consistent and clear for that, but choice has to be of quality,” Oliva said. “And I am questioning the quality of your charter school and why you’re allowed to have a charter agreement with our state that you just blatantly violate, just like you’re blatantly violating your parents’ contract that they’re going to get services with you.”

James Boyd, KIPP Delta’s executive director, said much of the senior leadership resigned shortly after he was hired 18 months ago, taking their institutional knowledge with them.

“I am frustrated that we have not given our students what they deserve, we have not given that community what it deserves,” Boyd said. “But I also stand here saying I need the opportunity to fix those things, to make those things happen because I did not come here to fail this community.”

He also said the systems in place to track special needs services were not adequate for handling the growth of the district’s special needs population. 

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

Boyd said he understood “the severity and the necessity of urgency for this situation,” but others did not, so he’s made staffing changes because of it. The district did not offer related services at the beginning of the year because it had an issue with a previous provider and it took a while to find a new one, Boyd said.

The school is currently providing occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech language, he said.

Oliva questioned how much more time the district needed to comply while the board’s newest member, Gary Arnold, asked if probation was “a strong enough response.” 

The governor appointed Arnold, a former Little Rock Christian Academy administrator and school choice advocate, to the state’s education board last Friday.

Advocate for school vouchers, Christian schools will fill Arkansas education board vacancy

Hope Worsham, assistant commissioner for public school accountability, said probation is a progressive process. If a district that’s been placed on probation violates the standard again, the board could take additional action, which could include requiring a district to consolidate or close, Worsham said.  

KIPP Delta is one of more than two dozen open-enrollment public charter school districts in the state. Public charter schools “operate with freedom” from many regulations applied to traditional public schools, according to the Arkansas Department of Education

Arkansas has two types of public charter schools. Open-enrollment charter schools can draw students from across district boundaries and are run by a governmental entity, higher learning institution or tax-exempt non-sectarian organization. 

District conversion charter schools are public schools converted to public charter schools, and they can only draw students from within the school district’s boundaries.  

KIPP Delta opened its first middle school in Helena-West Helena in 2002 and has since grown to serve more than 1,200 students, according to its website. KIPP has received support from the Walton Family Foundation, which has invested more than $407 million “to grow high-quality charter schools” since 1997, according to the foundation’s website

State officials will conduct on-site monitoring at KIPP Delta later this month. The school district’s attorney said they have related services personnel under contract and ADE’s Division of Elementary and Secondary Education has requested copies of the signed contracts no later than Dec. 20, Sewell said.

Board members expressed skepticism about the district’s ability to provide required services to students. As part of its motion to place KIPP Delta on probation, the board requested an update from the state’s upcoming on-site visit at its December meeting, at which point members will reevaluate how much time the district has to come into compliance.

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

By