Testimony of Dr. Michelle J. Walker-Davis, Executive Director DC Public Charter School Board

Hearing on Oversight of Education for Students with Special Needs

Committee of the Whole

December 10, 2025

Good afternoon Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee of the Whole. I am Dr. Michelle Walker-Davis, and I serve as Executive Director of the DC Public Charter School Board. Thank you for inviting me to testify today and for your ongoing commitment to students with disabilities and their families.

Fifty years ago, almost to the week, President Gerald Ford signed into law a promise of free appropriate public education to children with disabilities. That landmark law—which would become known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA—changed conversations around access and achievement. In 1976, the first year after the law’s enactment, about 8 percent of public school students received special education services. Today, that number is closer to 15 percent, or nearly 8 million children who receive such services. Before IDEA, students with disabilities were routinely excluded from public schools. Last year, the four-year graduation rate for public charter students with disabilities was almost 75 percent—lower than we’d like but a significant improvement from the mid 1970s.

Of course, IDEA also included a federal commitment to cover 40 percent of the average per pupil costs of special education. As folks in this room know only too well, annual federal funding has never covered even half of that commitment. Worse, the federal share has actually declined over the past fifteen years, leaving state and local governments with larger bills and families with greater uncertainty.

At DC PCSB, we see firsthand how policy and funding decisions made up and down Pennsylvania Avenue can empower students with disabilities or encumber them. About 8,000 of DC’s roughly 48,000 public charter school students have a disability. These students attend schools across every ward, grade level, and school model—and it is our job to make sure these students receive the educational opportunities they have been promised. Our School Equity and Effectiveness team leads much of our special education oversight, and they work to promote equity and excellence across the sector. They are supported in their work by staff across our agency, from school performance to data analysis to finance to community engagement teams. When we talk about centering students with disabilities in our conversations, we walk the walk.

The Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE) is the District’s lead agency for special education, setting the rules and monitoring IDEA compliance. Working with OSSE, DC PCSB helps ensure that public charter schools are serving students with disabilities appropriately. That means verifying that schools are complying with all federal and local laws regarding students with disabilities. It means examining enrollment counts and other data for red flags. It means confirming that they are providing families with regular updates on their student’s progress. And it means bringing school leaders together so they can learn from each other—as we did in October, when we hosted a best practices session on social-emotional learning for students with disabilities.

Part of our oversight work also includes our community complaint hotline, a process for parents and guardians to bring concerns directly to our agency when they are not satisfied with school responses. Our staff listen, review communication and documentation, and work to facilitate solutions that work for all parties.

What does ASPIRE, our academic accountability system, mean for special education? For one thing, ASPIRE emphasizes growth along with proficiency, which will better highlight the progress all students are making, including those with disabilities. ASPIRE also disaggregates data by student groups, such as students with disabilities, which will help schools and families more easily identify gaps and target interventions. Schools are using ASPIRE data internally, and we will publicly release ASPIRE results early next year.

Several public charter schools have already adopted ASPIRE as their charter goals, and we hope more will do so before April 1, 2026. We also recognize that ASPIRE may not be the best fit for every school, which is why we continue to give them the option to work toward goals that better align with their mission, student population, or operational model.

Finally, let me make a general point about funding and a specific request of this Council. The general point is that special education is particularly resource intensive, often benefitting from separate spaces or facilities and from more specialized or experienced staff—all of which carry additional costs. Tighter budgets and hiring freezes are felt across our sector but perhaps most disproportionately by students with special needs. Federal decisions, like dismantling the Department of Education, only add to the growing concern. I may be preaching to the converted, but I urge you to do everything in your power to insulate special education from reductions in force or funds.

The specific request is to address the funding shortfall for St. Coletta, a public charter school in Ward 7 that serves children with some of the most intensive disabilities. If anybody has not been to St. Coletta, please go. What they offer students and families is inspiring and, in many cases, irreplaceable. It is also not sustainable on the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF) alone. In the past, the Council has redirected DC PCSB funding to cover the shortfall—a solution that is neither fair to other public charter schools nor sustainable based on our current budget.

I raised this issue in last April’s budget hearing and noted DC PCSB’s support for a new level 5 weight for the highest need students with disabilities. The Deputy Mayor’s 2023 school funding study endorsed this approach as did the 2024-2025 UPSFF Working Group. We believe it remains the best option. The other option, which I also mentioned last year, is to raise the special education school weight from 1.17 to 1.9.

I was encouraged to read your 2025 budget report last May, particularly: “The Committee is supportive of additional funding for St. Coletta Special Education Public Charter School to cover a deficit in funding left by the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula.” I urge you to build on that this year by finding a solution that gives St. Coletta the sustainable funding it deserves.

Thank you again for the opportunity to discuss DC PCSB’s commitment to equity and excellence for students with disabilities and our work to ensure public charter schools continue to step up for this group of DC students. I welcome any questions you may have.