Charters fail to embrace kids with disabilities

Re: "Report urges feds to help schools," Page 1, Oct. 15.

While The Times-Picayune's article dealt with important concerns in the selective admission process of charter schools, it omitted an extremely important shortcoming in the push for increasing and maintaining a strong charter school presence in our city. What about children with disabilities?

The current process often puts those with physical, cognitive, behavioral and/or mental challenges completely out of the running for admission to these schools.

Then, if they are admitted, the schools often do not, or cannot, provide the necessary accommodations for these students to have a "level playing field" with the other, non-disabled students.

While some of the leaders of these charter schools are well-meaning (many are business-oriented and from out-of-town), many fail to realize that when they make their schools inaccessible or when they deny children with disabilities, they are leaving out a wonderful population of New Orleans' young citizens, students who are filled with potential.

They deny these children with disabilities, but gladly turn around and take our state and federal funds to pay their salaries and run their schools. These "educational carpetbaggers" capitalized on a chaotic situation after Katrina, and now they continue to discriminate, because they feel accountable to no one.

As a parent of a student with a disability, I want to know who is watching them. And why are they being allowed to discriminate while accepting state and federal funds?

Susan D. Bordelon

New Orleans