Officials at the Georgia Cyber Academy are failing to obtain education plans fast enough for the incoming special education students, according to Georgia Department of Education letters obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Department officials say GCA, like all public schools, need to get those plans quickly so they can either update them or adhere to them.
Special education students — students with mental or physical disabilities — are entitled by federal law to have education plans tailored especially for them. But state education officials say the rapidly growing GCA is struggling to adhere to that requirement.
GCA, a statewide charter school that provides online instruction to 12,000 students, “has had pervasive special education performance issues,” according to one of the letters it received from the department.
Department officials say they want assurance that GCA is properly spending its federal special education money.
The letters include a blunt warning from the department that it would revoke the school’s charter if it fails to take action. They also make it clear that there is a disconnect between what the department says is necessary to provide services to the school’s burgeoning special education student population — more staffing, smaller teacher caseloads — and what the school is providing.
GCA’s head of school, Matt Arkin, disputes the notion that the school is not meeting the needs of its special education students. He says GCA has addressed the department’s concerns by increasing staff and offering more training to teachers.
The dispute carries the risk that what has been hailed as an innovative success could become an example of a charter school that promised more than it could deliver.
GCA, like other public schools, is not allowed to turn away special education students, who now account for about 9 percent of those enrolled at the school. The parents of some special education students sometimes grow frustrated with traditional public schools and have turned to GCA as a place where their children can be free from bullying and where they can work more closely with their child.
Department officials said they have received numerous complaints from the unhappy parents of some special education students at GCA. The state is required to investigate those complaints.
Arkin said the complaints are from a small number of parents, some of whom filed complaints at previous schools.
In August, the department wrote GCA, praising it for making some progress in increasing staff to handle the school’s large number of special education students, bringing teacher-to-special education student caseloads into compliance with federal regulations, increasing special education teacher training and resolving parent complaints.
But department officials say that, while there has been progress in those areas, problems persist. Arkin said other schools have often been unresponsive to GCA’s requests for documentation.
GCA, the largest school in the state, has seen its special education student population grow to 1,100 students from about 600 two years ago, Arkin said.
The department made a visit to GCA in October and is preparing a report based on what its officials describe as the continuation of old problems in special education. The findings of that report are expected to be given to the school this month.
Arkin said it’s difficult for him to respond to concerns that will be raised in a report he has not yet seen.
“I’m not sure what’s going on,” Arkin said. “It seems odd to have all of these public and negative comments before we’ve had a chance to see what the problems are.”
One special education GCA parent, Etrudy Taylor-Mitchell, said she has been very disappointed by the education her daughter is receiving.
Taylor-Mitchell, who lives in Douglas County, said she enrolled her daughter in GCA in August after having her attend both private and public schools.
“It’s not individualized,” Taylor-Mitchell said of her daughter’s education at GCA. “When do you give me classes so you can work one-on-one or in a small group? You’re not in compliance.”
Arkin said many other parents feel differently. He provided contact information for one such parent, Cindy Oldham, whose daughter takes special education classes as a 7th-grader at GCA.
Told of Taylor-Mitchell’s complaints, Oldham said: “That has totally not been our experience at all.”
Oldham said her daughter, who was attending a traditional public school in Cobb County, has gotten all of the assistance she needs at GCA and is thriving.
“It has been awesome,” Oldham said.
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