§ 300.209 Treatment of charter schools and their students.

Plain English summary

This section establishes that children with disabilities in public charter schools retain all rights under IDEA Part B, and assigns responsibility for compliance based on the charter school's legal status. LEAs must serve charter school students equitably and fund them proportionally; if a charter school is its own LEA, it bears primary compliance responsibility; if it falls outside both categories, the SEA holds ultimate responsibility.

Key requirements

• Children with disabilities who attend public charter schools and their parents retain all rights under this part.
• The LEA must serve children with disabilities attending those charter schools in the same manner as the LEA serves children with disabilities in its other schools, including providing supplementary and related services on site at the charter school to the same extent to which the LEA has a policy or practice of providing such services on the site to its other public schools.
• The LEA must provide funds under Part B of the Act to those charter schools on the same basis as the LEA provides funds to the LEA's other public schools, including proportional distribution based on relative enrollment of children with disabilities.
• The LEA must provide funds at the same time as the LEA distributes other Federal funds to the LEA's other public schools, consistent with the State's charter school law.
• If the public charter school is a school of an LEA that receives funding under § 300.705 and includes other public schools, the LEA is responsible for ensuring that the requirements of this part are met, unless State law assigns that responsibility to some other entity.
• If the public charter school is an LEA, consistent with § 300.28, that receives funding under § 300.705, that charter school is responsible for ensuring that the requirements of this part are met, unless State law assigns that responsibility to some other entity.
• If the public charter school is not an LEA receiving funding under § 300.705, or a school that is part of an LEA receiving funding under § 300.705, the SEA is responsible for ensuring that the requirements of this part are met.
• The SEA must maintain the ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with this part, consistent with § 300.149.

Affected parties

• children with disabilities attending public charter schools
• parents of children with disabilities attending public charter schools
• local educational agencies (LEAs)
• public charter schools
• state educational agencies (SEAs)

Official source

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/part-300/section-300.209