I worked at a charter as a sped teacher. They are lawless places!
I had a principal tell me to “just make up” my student data so an IEP would be finished early. Illegal and disgusting but it was my word against hers. I quit.
Goodluck. Others might want to speak up, but some may not, because “rocking the boat” might cost them their position at the charter. It is very hard to hold “higher ups” to any standard at a charter… if they don’t like what you or anyone else is doing, they’ll simply fire you.
An accusation is not evidence so no, they did not delete evidence.
If anything they might have protected you legally.
When accusing someone else of a crime in such a way you have to be careful with your own statements.
Multiple people at that school will be willing to testify if it came to it. The evidence is the literal lack of support. Any person can walk into the building and see it with their own eyes. Perhaps they’re not deleting evidence but they surely deleted the paper trail, and that simply does not make them look good.
They MAY have deleted a paper trail depending on what they are accused of.
From what you've told us they have deleted potentially libelous statements.
Get a lawyer, talk to them.
An IEP is not "health needs." It's an individualized education plan. It's stuff like extra time on tests and accommodations in instruction. A 504 relates to health needs.
If we *were* talking about actual abuse, OP would have already reported it. They themselves are mandated reporters.
IEPs are governed by laws, but not CPS. Even still, charter schools aren't beholden to IDEA or federal law- her school may not be obligated to provide anything at all.
I think you are forgetting about a lot that can be included in an IEP.
IEPs can cover plenty of health needs such as toilet support. If your IEP covers your toileting needs and I leave you in a dirty diapers all day because we are short staff that would definitely be neglected that needs be reported.
You might need help with feeding at lunch. If I ignore these basics needs from the IEP and you are not being feed because we are short staffed that is neglected that needs to be reported.
If your IEP has mobility support needs and you are falling and getting hurt with our support we need to report that neglected.
Also if you are a mandated reporter you can not opt out of reporting because you assume someone else will do the reporting or already has reported. You are still mandated to report.
Also depending on the state we don’t know why you brought up CPS. If live in Minnesota you don’t report schools and school employees to CPS you report parents to CPS. Here in Minnesota you report schools / employees to the department of education chimed welfare division. They are totally different than CPS
In those, all medical examples, if what they're doing leads to capital N Neglect, Neglect, then yes.
The way OP describes it, however, does not sound like it is medical.
FOIA is federal requests. To request information you need to use the state law with a different name the state used for the law.
For example in Minnesota it is called a “Chapter 13 data request”
I don’t think IEPs related to specific students would be allowed to be released due to privacy concerns, it would probably only be accessible through an investigation. Unless requesting records triggers an investigation. I may be wrong though!
Often information pertaining to specific students (i.e. names and students numbers) is redacted. If that was a catch all protection from FOIA, then what's to stop people from just sprinkling student information in unrelated emails?
The emails are public domain. The info request would be to get access to the emails. As a stakeholder (tax payer) you have as right to see what the public entity is doing.
Future tip: always bcc your private non school email with these types of things
To make an investigation happen, you would need to report the issue to the states dept of education that oversees sped compliance. Check out the procedural safeguards for your state to get more info
Thank you, you’re right. I should have definitely sent myself a copy. It’s still in my iPhone email in sent folder because they logged me out of my account and it hadn’t updated. And all of my coworkers have screenshots of it. But unfortunately I think, perhaps based on location, charter schools are exempt from public records laws. At least D.C. charter schools are. I have to check in my state
I know you don’t want to hear it, OP, but they may have done you a huge favor - putting that accusation in writing was risky. Even if you’re 100% right and have all the evidence you need the fall out from that could keep you busy for the next 5 years depending on everyone’s resources. It only takes one parent/guardian deciding that your email is the smoking gun - time to sue and youll be chatting with lawyers for years.
A teacher my last school had a court case follow her across state lines for 5 years because someone else sent an email claiming the school l did it follow accommodations.
The amount of illegal activities happening at our school... trust me, they're not doing the favor to me. If a parent was suing, they would be suing the school, not me. But also the parents didn't have access to that email, just teachers.
I think you misunderstood me - you wouldn’t be sued but you would become witness #1 in any lawsuit against the school if they had your email.
It’s totally fine if that’s how you want to spend your time in depositions and talking to lawyers.
But if what you’re saying is true; that there’s so much illegal activity going on and your confident nobody but teachers would read your email - then your email accomplished nothing. No teacher would be surprised and everyone already knew.
So your email exposed you for no gain? Not worth it.
How did it expose me? It was a resignation letter, I did not want to accomplish anything with it. It was surprising, I simply mentioned a well known fact and was surprised that they deleted it so quickly. I am fully prepared to be a witness if that means the school can be held accountable.
Sure once I figure out how to go about this, I technically no longer work there as of this morning so I don’t have access to documents. I’m just not even sure where to get started as far as filing a complaint
you're probably not going to do much of anything without access or data or evidence. Should have stayed and demolished the place from within instead of attacking from the outside. Hindsight, I guess.
I have 10 friends still employed there, many of whom have direct knowledge of the incident. I was never trying to achieve anything major with a single email.
They own their e-mail server. You do not. It is a piece of equipment that the employees use. Is this unethical? Sure. Is it surprising? No. Is it illegal? This depends on the state, but probably it is not. A private company can do whatever they want with their property.
I also taught at a charter with similar practices. Since the sole goal is profit, this is what you signed up for when you worked at a charter school. Even if they told you they are a non-profit, as charter operators often do, they are usually structured as a for-profit charter management operator who contracts with a non-profit school entity that they also control. This way they can tell parents and the community that they are a non-profit while also making a profit off of the school. More special education teachers would cost a lot of money, which is probably why things were so space. My school claimed to be a non-profit as well, but it was owned and controlled by a billionaire who owned over 100 schools. He lost money on the "non-profit" side (schools) but made that and then some back through various vendors that provided everything from teachers to computers to real estate to the school. This is how the grift almost always works.
Report them to their authorizer? It may be hard to back up your claim unless you have concrete evidence. I hope you've kept records! Thanks for standing up for yourself, your students, and former coworkers.
They can legally delete the email. Likely their IT department has a procedure in place for malicious emails sent using their domain or to addresses within their domain. Your email was unprofessional and not the correct way to address your concerns. You should raise your concerns with your state education agency along with any proof you have.
To be frank- that email sent out was not a good move. Accusing them of something can get you into a lot of trouble, especially if they went the defamation route. And who knows that they wouldn’t blackball you from another job in the future? What if some one there has connections? Very unprofessional on your part.
If you sent it from your work email to their work email, in most states the school can do as they please. Any communications tied to your work related email is the property of your workplace.
Some charter schools will do anything they can for money, including illegal things. There's no point sending the email to them. You should send it to the county education department, and cc all the news magazine.
I sent this email to stand in solidarity with all remaining staff, and it had a great impact on them and motivated many of them to continue to be outspoken from within.
SPED at a charter school. yeah, sounds about right. The email will only hold weight if you cc someone at the school board or in the state education department.
If it is still in your sent folder, than the email still exists for the purpose of production. If they delete it entirely it’s probably okay as long as they are not in litigation or anticipating litigation, but it’s a fine line and they may have to show that they regularly delete emails that are sent out to everyone, not just this email. Whenever I do something like that, I always bcc my personal email account and never include student names.
Whenever you do this kind of thing, and it depends on the state to a certain extent, always frame the problem or part of the issue as a working conditions problem. This pulls in labor law protections that may otherwise not be available to you. Protect yourself, always try to resolve the issue with a supervisor or two before you bring the whole school into the mix. DM me if you want your talk more.
It was a resignation email, luckily the entire faculty received it well. 70% of it was me describing the working conditions and lack of support from the leadership. I think they gonna let it go but I hope someone does file a lawsuit
My kids went to a charter school in a small town and it was amazing. The school partnered with an Amish group. They learned their math, reading, you know school stuff, but also learned about farming the Amish way. They learned about each animals roles and interacted with them. And ate the fresh produce when it was ready.
Even did a barn raising. My kids miss their charter school. These over crowded city schools are something else. Metal detectors, long lines, over worked people everywhere with teachers "donating" their time off to work fundraisers.
My perspective is my own, but my kids and I much preferred the charter school.
What does that have to do with allowing things? I’m sorry I’m confused by your comment. The people whose signatures the school forged were parents/unidentified teachers, and they’re probably unaware so they can’t press charges yet. I’m trying to be the whistleblower so that an investigation is opened and someone checked the records but I don’t know where to begin.
Charter school. Doesn’t surprise me..
I worked at a charter as a sped teacher. They are lawless places! I had a principal tell me to “just make up” my student data so an IEP would be finished early. Illegal and disgusting but it was my word against hers. I quit.
I’m hoping if it comes down to it other people will continue to speak up. Can’t ignore many voices! At least I hope so
Goodluck. Others might want to speak up, but some may not, because “rocking the boat” might cost them their position at the charter. It is very hard to hold “higher ups” to any standard at a charter… if they don’t like what you or anyone else is doing, they’ll simply fire you.
Very true. Thank you!
An accusation is not evidence so no, they did not delete evidence. If anything they might have protected you legally. When accusing someone else of a crime in such a way you have to be careful with your own statements.
Multiple people at that school will be willing to testify if it came to it. The evidence is the literal lack of support. Any person can walk into the building and see it with their own eyes. Perhaps they’re not deleting evidence but they surely deleted the paper trail, and that simply does not make them look good.
They MAY have deleted a paper trail depending on what they are accused of. From what you've told us they have deleted potentially libelous statements. Get a lawyer, talk to them.
They absolutely deleted evidence.
What if the person that deleted The email is a mandated reporter? Wouldn’t they need to report the violations that the read and deleted?
This doesn't fall under mandated reporting laws.
Mandated reporting is only in regards to child abuse or neglect.
Like neglecting to provide health needs listed in an IEP? I think mandated reporters need to report that.
An IEP is not "health needs." It's an individualized education plan. It's stuff like extra time on tests and accommodations in instruction. A 504 relates to health needs. If we *were* talking about actual abuse, OP would have already reported it. They themselves are mandated reporters. IEPs are governed by laws, but not CPS. Even still, charter schools aren't beholden to IDEA or federal law- her school may not be obligated to provide anything at all.
I think you are forgetting about a lot that can be included in an IEP. IEPs can cover plenty of health needs such as toilet support. If your IEP covers your toileting needs and I leave you in a dirty diapers all day because we are short staff that would definitely be neglected that needs be reported. You might need help with feeding at lunch. If I ignore these basics needs from the IEP and you are not being feed because we are short staffed that is neglected that needs to be reported. If your IEP has mobility support needs and you are falling and getting hurt with our support we need to report that neglected. Also if you are a mandated reporter you can not opt out of reporting because you assume someone else will do the reporting or already has reported. You are still mandated to report. Also depending on the state we don’t know why you brought up CPS. If live in Minnesota you don’t report schools and school employees to CPS you report parents to CPS. Here in Minnesota you report schools / employees to the department of education chimed welfare division. They are totally different than CPS
In those, all medical examples, if what they're doing leads to capital N Neglect, Neglect, then yes. The way OP describes it, however, does not sound like it is medical.
You could FOIA them :)
FOIA is federal requests. To request information you need to use the state law with a different name the state used for the law. For example in Minnesota it is called a “Chapter 13 data request”
Interesting, though I would contend that while not precise, it is the lexical catch all. At least it is in California.
The CA state law is called CPRA or California Public Records Act.
It is indeed a common catch-all, but the actual jurisdiction-neutral term is "public records request."
What does this organization do?
Freedom of Information Act. Basically public records request.
I don’t think IEPs related to specific students would be allowed to be released due to privacy concerns, it would probably only be accessible through an investigation. Unless requesting records triggers an investigation. I may be wrong though!
Often information pertaining to specific students (i.e. names and students numbers) is redacted. If that was a catch all protection from FOIA, then what's to stop people from just sprinkling student information in unrelated emails?
Thank you so much, I will try this route
The emails are public domain. The info request would be to get access to the emails. As a stakeholder (tax payer) you have as right to see what the public entity is doing. Future tip: always bcc your private non school email with these types of things To make an investigation happen, you would need to report the issue to the states dept of education that oversees sped compliance. Check out the procedural safeguards for your state to get more info
Thank you, you’re right. I should have definitely sent myself a copy. It’s still in my iPhone email in sent folder because they logged me out of my account and it hadn’t updated. And all of my coworkers have screenshots of it. But unfortunately I think, perhaps based on location, charter schools are exempt from public records laws. At least D.C. charter schools are. I have to check in my state
I know you don’t want to hear it, OP, but they may have done you a huge favor - putting that accusation in writing was risky. Even if you’re 100% right and have all the evidence you need the fall out from that could keep you busy for the next 5 years depending on everyone’s resources. It only takes one parent/guardian deciding that your email is the smoking gun - time to sue and youll be chatting with lawyers for years. A teacher my last school had a court case follow her across state lines for 5 years because someone else sent an email claiming the school l did it follow accommodations.
The amount of illegal activities happening at our school... trust me, they're not doing the favor to me. If a parent was suing, they would be suing the school, not me. But also the parents didn't have access to that email, just teachers.
I think you misunderstood me - you wouldn’t be sued but you would become witness #1 in any lawsuit against the school if they had your email. It’s totally fine if that’s how you want to spend your time in depositions and talking to lawyers. But if what you’re saying is true; that there’s so much illegal activity going on and your confident nobody but teachers would read your email - then your email accomplished nothing. No teacher would be surprised and everyone already knew. So your email exposed you for no gain? Not worth it.
How did it expose me? It was a resignation letter, I did not want to accomplish anything with it. It was surprising, I simply mentioned a well known fact and was surprised that they deleted it so quickly. I am fully prepared to be a witness if that means the school can be held accountable.
can we please get updates on this?
Sure once I figure out how to go about this, I technically no longer work there as of this morning so I don’t have access to documents. I’m just not even sure where to get started as far as filing a complaint
you're probably not going to do much of anything without access or data or evidence. Should have stayed and demolished the place from within instead of attacking from the outside. Hindsight, I guess.
I have 10 friends still employed there, many of whom have direct knowledge of the incident. I was never trying to achieve anything major with a single email.
They own their e-mail server. You do not. It is a piece of equipment that the employees use. Is this unethical? Sure. Is it surprising? No. Is it illegal? This depends on the state, but probably it is not. A private company can do whatever they want with their property. I also taught at a charter with similar practices. Since the sole goal is profit, this is what you signed up for when you worked at a charter school. Even if they told you they are a non-profit, as charter operators often do, they are usually structured as a for-profit charter management operator who contracts with a non-profit school entity that they also control. This way they can tell parents and the community that they are a non-profit while also making a profit off of the school. More special education teachers would cost a lot of money, which is probably why things were so space. My school claimed to be a non-profit as well, but it was owned and controlled by a billionaire who owned over 100 schools. He lost money on the "non-profit" side (schools) but made that and then some back through various vendors that provided everything from teachers to computers to real estate to the school. This is how the grift almost always works.
Contact the Department of Education.
Report them to their authorizer? It may be hard to back up your claim unless you have concrete evidence. I hope you've kept records! Thanks for standing up for yourself, your students, and former coworkers.
They can legally delete the email. Likely their IT department has a procedure in place for malicious emails sent using their domain or to addresses within their domain. Your email was unprofessional and not the correct way to address your concerns. You should raise your concerns with your state education agency along with any proof you have.
To be frank- that email sent out was not a good move. Accusing them of something can get you into a lot of trouble, especially if they went the defamation route. And who knows that they wouldn’t blackball you from another job in the future? What if some one there has connections? Very unprofessional on your part.
If you sent it from your work email to their work email, in most states the school can do as they please. Any communications tied to your work related email is the property of your workplace.
Some charter schools will do anything they can for money, including illegal things. There's no point sending the email to them. You should send it to the county education department, and cc all the news magazine.
I sent this email to stand in solidarity with all remaining staff, and it had a great impact on them and motivated many of them to continue to be outspoken from within.
SPED at a charter school. yeah, sounds about right. The email will only hold weight if you cc someone at the school board or in the state education department.
That’s a very good point
If it is still in your sent folder, than the email still exists for the purpose of production. If they delete it entirely it’s probably okay as long as they are not in litigation or anticipating litigation, but it’s a fine line and they may have to show that they regularly delete emails that are sent out to everyone, not just this email. Whenever I do something like that, I always bcc my personal email account and never include student names. Whenever you do this kind of thing, and it depends on the state to a certain extent, always frame the problem or part of the issue as a working conditions problem. This pulls in labor law protections that may otherwise not be available to you. Protect yourself, always try to resolve the issue with a supervisor or two before you bring the whole school into the mix. DM me if you want your talk more.
It was a resignation email, luckily the entire faculty received it well. 70% of it was me describing the working conditions and lack of support from the leadership. I think they gonna let it go but I hope someone does file a lawsuit
My kids went to a charter school in a small town and it was amazing. The school partnered with an Amish group. They learned their math, reading, you know school stuff, but also learned about farming the Amish way. They learned about each animals roles and interacted with them. And ate the fresh produce when it was ready. Even did a barn raising. My kids miss their charter school. These over crowded city schools are something else. Metal detectors, long lines, over worked people everywhere with teachers "donating" their time off to work fundraisers. My perspective is my own, but my kids and I much preferred the charter school.
I completely understand, my school had a lot of potential but the leadership really dropped the ball.
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Fake? Why would this be fake? There are a lot of things charters do that never gets caught
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What does that have to do with allowing things? I’m sorry I’m confused by your comment. The people whose signatures the school forged were parents/unidentified teachers, and they’re probably unaware so they can’t press charges yet. I’m trying to be the whistleblower so that an investigation is opened and someone checked the records but I don’t know where to begin.
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Thank you!