This qualitative study explored the awareness and perceptions of a select group of parents about specialty and charter school offerings in a large countywide school system in a mid-Atlantic state. The study utilized focus groups as the primary source of data collection to obtain information from parents about their knowledge and opinion of current specialty program offerings in the district. In addition, the investigation also asked parents, what additional public school choices if any they would they like to see.

The research was guided by three primary research questions: How knowledgeable are selected elementary school parents about available non-traditional public school options? What features of non-traditional public school options do parents perceive as desirable/undesirable? What do parents report as potential or actual motivators for seeking to enroll one or more of their children in a non-traditional public school? Four cross-cutting themes emerged during the four focus groups: parents had limited and unreliable information about FUSD specialty and charter schools; parents preferences for program features stressed academic rigor, language immersion and parental engagement; and location of a specialty school and the lottery process were viewed as deterrents to parents’ choosing a school. The information shared by the parents were coded and analyzed. The data generated from the focus group conversations indicate: information about how to access specialty and charter schools was most commonly learned from friends, family or co-workers; the most common desirable features and/or attributes identified by most of the parents were: STEM focused schools, college preparatory curriculums and language focused schools; parents were unaware of all the options in FUSD or how to access them and the desire for schools that supported strong parental engagement