St. Louis charter schools are forming a new special education co-op

Eight St. Louis charter schools is launching a new cooperative to share special education resources. The new Shared Special Education Services Cooperative currently includes eight charters, including Atlas Public Schools, Confluence Academies, Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls, Lafayette Preparatory Academy and Momentum Academy. The co-op will look for ways to help its charter schools more efficiently manage special education staff and resources between schools. 

“What we’re really hoping to do in this co-op is actually have some of our staff help out some of those smaller charter schools, who just need a few hours of occupational therapy a week, or speech language pathology a week, and some of our staff have availability, so they can help those other charter schools provide those minutes,” Kari Kraichely, director of student services for KIPP St. Louis said.