Epoh, you definitely put your finger on the main concern. The charter school sure sounds good and looks like it has the right pieces, but the implementation is a complete unknown. That's been my biggest hangup with it so I'm going to keep investigating the options for bailout if we were to go that route.
I'm also trying to get in touch with some other parents of prospective students, to figure out what sold them on this charter - overall I think their existing optins aren't even as good as mine (based on what I do know about the local school system), but this sure feels like a big leap for anyone to take and they've got well over a hundred ready to take it.
Thanks also for the questions - there are few new ones, I hadn't thought of. They claim no problem with following the existing 504 plan that includes accomodations for both the dyslexia and ADD-I. She is well above grade level, so most of the accomodations are just to scaffold and make sure she doesn't slip backwards (at least so far). I did raise the grade/subject skip issue, just because they only have one grade ahead (they are planning to add 8th grade in 2013, then regular high school kicks in, unless they decide to charter one of those, too). They have indicated they are willing to do small group instruction and possibly even one-on-one. They are planning an Algebra I class this year, which would be predominantly 7th graders, but might be open to DD - we haven't gotten into the pre-reqs. The one thing I do know is they have one teacher for each primary subject to teach all grade levels. So jumping around between grade level classes could create a scheduling nightmare. They plan to handle that with one or two teachers (kinda floaters) who have extensive educational experience at middle and high school level (although I don't know for sure in which subjects), who would teach those small groups while the primary teachers handle the regular classes. They really do seem to have the best intentions, but we all know where that sometimes leads!
Again, the issue is they talk a good game, but who knows what happens when the rubber hits the road! Of course the only thing I have to compare to right now is the current school, where they don't even talk a good game unless pushed.
