Charter schools crack down, from uniforms to drugs

At College Preparatory Academy, it started with a demerit. If a student talked back, teased another student or wasn't following the public charter school's policy on uniforms, he or she would get a demerit, worth 30 minutes of detention to be served after school. More demerits, more time.
But if the student blew off detention, he was suspended. Usually for just one day, said Susan Schaeffler, CEO of KIPP DC, which runs College Prep and nine other schools in the District.



Disciplining the students


Expulsions


School
Grades
Number of students expelled
Percentage of students expelled


Friendship Public Charter School - Collegiate Academy
9-12
56
5%


Kipp DC Public Charter School - College Prep Academy
9-12
17
5%


SEED Public Charter School
6-12
13
4%


Friendship Public Charter School - Tech Prep Academy
6-10
11
3%


Center City Public Charter School - Trinidad
Pre-K-8
7
3%


Students suspended or expelled


School
Enrollment
Number of incidents
Number of students with incidents
Percentage of students with discipline incidents


Maya Angelou Public Charter School (middle)
210
552
147
70%


Kipp DC Public Charter School - College Prep Academy
330
442
194
59%


SEED Public Charter School
340
266
166
49%


Friendship Public Charter School - Tech Prep Academy
378
406
173
46%


Maya Angelou Public Charter School (high)
296
239
121
41%

That's how College Prep ended up suspending at least 54 percent of its students last year, according to data released by the DC Public Charter School Board last week. Most students were suspended for just one or two days.

But other students didn't learn their lessons and brought knives or drugs to school. The charter expelled 17 students, or 5 percent of its population, in the 2011-12 school year.

"It's our responsibility to make sure our students are safe, and our parents are expecting that every day," Schaeffler said. "The day we don't do that, we have a really big problem on our hands."

Ten D.C. charter schools suspended at least one-third of their students last year, and suspended some of them, racking up numbers that have drawn questions from parents and community members over whether children who act out can afford to lose class time.

The charter schools' discipline policies also have drawn scrutiny from D.C. officials over whether the schools are dumping their problem kids back into D.C.'s traditional public schools. The traditional school system is preparing a report on how many students transfer midyear from the charter schools, after the D.C. Council held a hearing on the issue in February.

But charter leaders say their discipline policies are part of what makes them charter schools: autonomy to decide what's acceptable on their 100-plus campuses and how to best provide students' education.

For instance, of SEED Public Charter School's 340 children, 13 were expelled last year, and as many as 166 students were suspended -- meaning about half of all students were kicked out of school, temporarily or permanently. But SEED's charter allows it to act as boarding school, keeping kids overnight five days a week.