{"id":3754,"date":"2011-12-22T10:45:45","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T15:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=3754"},"modified":"2012-01-04T17:22:27","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T22:22:27","slug":"orlando-charter-school-excels-at-serving-students-with-and-without-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/12\/22\/orlando-charter-school-excels-at-serving-students-with-and-without-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Charter School Excels At Serving Students With And Without Disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

John O'Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

UCP's Bailes campus in East Orlando serves students as young as six weeks up through 3rd grade. About half of the school's students have a disability.<\/p><\/div>\n

When her three-year-old granddaughter moved to Orlando, the dean of education at the University of Central Florida<\/a> knew exactly where she should go — a school founded for children with disabilities.<\/p>\n

Young Ellie doesn\u2019t have a disability. But Sandra Robinson<\/a> says she\u2019s still best served in the toddler program at the UCP Bailes campus in East Orlando<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would have the opportunities to work with these very skilled teachers,\u201d Robinson said, \u201cbut also in such a diverse classroom so that from her very early years Ellie would understand differences in people.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of seven charter schools run by the non-profit UCP, affiliated with the central Florida chapter of United Cerebral Palsy. And it\u2019s unique in several ways.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Half of its students are like Ellie and don\u2019t have a disability. The other half has disabilities such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and autism.<\/p>\n

New research suggests this mix of students raises achievement — not only for the students with disabilities, but their non-disabled classmates as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

<\/p>

UCF Education School Dean Sandra Robinson recommended the UCP charter school for her non-disabled granddaughter.<\/p><\/div>\n

And UCP is one reason Orange County charter schools educate more kids with disabilities than any other school district \u2013 six times the rate of other large districts.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the exception in a state where 86 percent of charter schools<\/a> don\u2019t serve a single child with a severe disability, according to a StateImpact Florida\/Miami Herald<\/em> investigation.<\/p>\n

Many charter schools say they can\u2019t afford to take on students with severe disabilities. But those students are part of the business plan at the UCP charter schools.<\/p>\n

While rare among Florida charters, experts say UCP\u2019s model \u2013known as inclusion — will grow more common.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat kind of population is what we think our students will see in the future,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a wonderful laboratory for us\u201d<\/h3>\n

UCP got started in Orlando in the 1950s, said school CEO Ilene Wilkins, but the group\u2019s board decided to expand its educational mission by chartering a school in 2001.<\/p>\n

UCP\u2019s first schools focused on early childhood services for students with disabilities. The schools refocused their methods a few years later and adopted an inclusion model that puts students with disabilities and students without disabilities in the same classroom.<\/p>\n

Related<\/h4>
Posts<\/h5>