The Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education has investigated whether New York City’s new small high schools have discriminated against English-language learners or students with disabilities by excluding them from admission during the first three years of each school’s existence. The office has determined that the schools have NOT excluded these students, and thus haven’t discriminated against them.
See my colleague Christina Samuels’ August 2007 article about the issue, “Small Schools in N.Y.C. Pressed on Spec. Ed.”
eduwonk provided a link today to OCR’s Jan. 15 letter, which includes data to back up the conclusion that the new small high schools are enrolling plenty of ELLs and students with disabilities. Case closed, the letter says.