Boston Renaissance Charter School
| Boston Renaissance Charter Public School | |
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| Address | |
 Boston Renaissance Charter Public School
Boston Renaissance Charter Public School
Boston Renaissance Charter Public School
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1415 Hyde Park Avenue Hyde Park, Massachusetts United States |
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| Coordinates | 42°15′02″N 71°07′37″W / 42.2505°N 71.1270°WCoordinates: 42°15′02″N 71°07′37″W / 42.2505°N 71.1270°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Charter |
| Established | 1995 |
| Grades | K-6 (formerly K–8) |
| Website | www |
Boston Renaissance Charter Public School (BRCPS), formerly Boston Renaissance Charter School (BRCS), is a charter elementary school in the Hyde Park area of Boston. It is one of the oldest charter schools in Boston, and as of 2012 BRCPS was also one of the largest charter schools in the city. In 2001 it was the largest American charter school that operated out of a single campus, and in 2005 it was the largest charter school in the state of Massachusetts. Overall it was one of the largest charter schools in the United States. It formerly served middle school grades but now only serves elementary school.
The school first opened in 1995; the State of Massachusetts allowed the formation of charter schools in 1993. It was co-founded by several area figures, including the former Horace Mann Foundation executive director, Dr. Robert Gaudet. Its initial location was in Downtown Boston. Edison Schools (now EdisonLearning) operated the school by contract. In its first year it had 637 students in elementary grades. The school administration hoped to have the student body increase up to 1,265 students. Edison Schools hoped to establish a model school so that it could repeat this model in other parts of the U.S. The school administration envisioned that the school would cover grades Kindergarten through 12.
In its first year of operation, the school did not receive special education records for students transferring from Boston Public Schools (BPS) campuses until several months into the year as the school district was late in transferring them. In 1997 a group of teachers accused the school of trying to discourage special needs students from enrolling. Edison Schools stated that special needs students were not being discouraged from enrolling, and that excluding special needs students went against Edison policies. Around 1997 some parents of special education children intentionally did not state their children's statuses so that the kids would not have stigma attached to them. The parents of a child complained to the Massachusetts Advocacy Center stating that they were not notified that their disabled child was transferred out of a classroom; the school administration had resolved the scenario by allowing his school day to be finished at 12 noon. The Office for Civil Rights of the federal government examined the situation and, in 1997, placed the school's special education program under federal government oversight. Chester E. Finn Jr., Bruno V. Manno, and Gregg Vanourek, the authors of Charter Schools in Action: Renewing Public Education, argued that this was a "troublesome precedent".
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