Survey: Help us understand how the city’s charter schools refill their seats

How does enrollment work at your charter school, charter network or district school?

We’re asking for your help understanding how schools do and don’t fill their seats after students leave. We got started with this story yesterday:

One main issue is backfill, or what happens to space vacated by students who leave charter schools. Some schools, seeking to fulfill a larger mission and bolster their finances, fill those spots by calling students off of their waiting lists. Other schools focus on teaching the students who remain, avoiding a potential drop in test scores and the social and academic disruption of adding new students. The debate over which policy is best has long divided the charter sector, as critics have charged that schools that do not backfill are not serving their share of high-needs students. Now, the issue is growing in prominence as school leaders try to anticipate how the mayor will deal with charter schools in the years ahead, and especially how the city might charge charter schools rent to operate in public space.

Our goal is to deepen our reporting with your experiences, and we created this survey to provide an easy way for you to share them. We also know that on-the-ground realities can be more complicated than simple policy statements, and would welcome insight about how those policies work for parents and students.

Any questions? Feel free to reach out to sdarville@chalkbeat.org.