NORTH COUNTY -- Enrollment at many local charter schools is disproportionately white when compared with other schools in the region, according to enrollment numbers from the California Department of Education.

Roughly 45 percent of students in North County are white, but at charter schools, white students make up about 60 percent of the population on average, according to an examination of state data by the North County Times.

Charter school officials said their programs are open to everyone and the differences in demographics could be caused by economic, transportation-related or cultural factors. State law doesn't require schools to be racially balanced.

The issue has been a concern since California's first charter schools opened in 1993, said Ken Noonan, former superintendent of Oceanside Unified and a member of the State Board of Education. He said some educators were concerned from the start that charter programs would lead many white parents to move their children out of increasingly nonwhite schools.

At least to a certain extent, that may be happening here, the state numbers show.

On average, Latinos make up 30 percent of charter school students in North County, but 38 percent of students overall, according to the state data. Other races tend to have fairly proportionate representation in the charter schools.

Charter schools are tax-supported public schools, but they operate independently of their chartering school districts. Unlike typical public schools, charter schools don't have attendance boundaries and guaranteed enrollment so they must recruit students to stay in business.

Charter schools should strive to be racially balanced, but parents have the ultimate choice in whether their child attends a charter or a traditional school, Noonan said.

"Parental choice doesn't always lead to equality," he said.

Numbers

According to the state numbers, the differences in enrollment at charter schools and typical public schools are particularly stark in the Escondido and Oceanside school districts, which have the highest percentage of Latino students.

At the Classical Academy charter school in Escondido, the student population is 9 percent Latino and 78 percent white. In the surrounding Escondido Union School District, 65 percent of the students are Latino and 26 percent white.

The percentages at Oceanside's Coastal Academy, the Classical Academy's sister school, were nearly identical.

Other charter schools in the region are a bit more balanced racially, though most of them have a lower percentage of Latino students than their surrounding districts and a higher percentage of whites.

Oceanside's School of Business and Technology has one of the highest percentages of Latinos among charter schools in North County with 51 percent. Still, even that number is slightly below the district's average of 54 percent.

The only real exceptions to this trend are two small charter schools on the Pala and Rincon reservations that cater mostly to American Indians.

Across the state, 49 percent of students are Latino, while only 39 percent of those in charter schools are.

At the same time, the percentage of white students in charter schools across the state is the same as their overall percentage in public schools, 36 percent.

The racial makeup of charter schools isn't something the state keeps an eye on, though the schools agree in their charters to do whatever possible to represent the area in which they're located, said Gary Page, the state Department of Education's liaison with charter schools south of Los Angeles County.

"The expectation is that they will have in their charter a description of how they will go out and recruit," he said.

Finding students

When the Coastal Academy opened in 2003, the organizers tried to bring in students from all walks of life by presenting information in English and Spanish to various community centers and churches, said Cameron Curry, chief business officer for the school and Classical Academy.

"Our door is open to everyone," Curry said. "Obviously, you can't twist arms and say 'Get in the car. You're coming over here.' "

Vista's Guajome Park Academy has helped to bring in a diverse student body in part by hiring diverse educators, said Carla Skaggs, the school's chief business officer.

More than 30 percent of the school's students are Latino, which is relatively high compared with other charter schools in the area. Still, that number is low compared with the Vista Unified School District, which is 52 percent Latino.

School officials consider it a priority to make sure that the students at the school reflect the surrounding community, Skaggs said.

"We work really hard to reach out to the community," she said. "It doesn't matter what their ethnicity is, we're educating kids and that's really what it's all about."

Awareness

If school district would do a better job of letting parents know about all of their scholastic options, there would probably be more Latinos sending their children to charter schools, Curry said.

"There are still those in our community who may not understand who we are, what we do and who we serve," he said.

Robert Rivas, founder of Encuentros Leadership of North County San Diego, said he thinks it's up to the charter schools to reach out to Latinos. The Encuentros group focuses on educational issues with Latino boys.

Transportation can be an issue, as many of the charter campuses are located in remote locations outside of residential areas.

Latinos tend to send their children to whichever school is closest, Rivas said.

"For many families, sending our child to school is just, 'Let's see, which bus picks us up,' " he said.

In recent years, public focus has shifted from wanting diverse schools to wanting schools with stronger ties to their surrounding neighborhoods, which are often not very diverse, Noonan said.

Parental involvement

Many charter schools require more parental involvement than a typical public school and that can make economics a factor in whether parents choose a charter program, said Gary Larson, president of the California Charter School Association.

Several of the area's biggest charter schools serve children who are taught at home at least a few days a week. At those schools -- including the Classical Academy, Coastal Academy and Eagles Peak Charter School -- students attend classes at the campus only two days a week.

Half of the students at Classical and Coastal academies were completely home schooled before they enrolled in the charter program, Curry said. The other half attended various public and private schools.

The majority of parents who home school their children are white, said Brian Ray, President of the National Home Education Research Institute.

This is largely a matter of economics, he said. At least one parent needs to be around the house much of the day to home school, which often means working part time or being a stay-at-home parent.

Also, he said, wealthier people tend to be more aware of the educational options that are available.

"I think, overall, people of high socioeconomic status figure out their choices more," he said.

'Each one is unique'

Janet Bledsoe Lacy, president of the Oceanside Unified School District board, said trustees are concerned about the lack of diversity at some of the local charter schools, but that there's not much they can do about it.

School boards provide some oversight of schools chartered through their district, but the schools are almost completely independent and often compete with the districts for many of the same students and the state money attached to them.

"We're in a business that has competition because of charters," Bledsoe Lacy said. "I don't want to go out and increase their enrollment at the sacrifice of our students, in order to cure the diversity issues that they've got."

Because charter schools often have unique focuses, each might draws different types of students, said Page, with the state Department of Education.

Some charter schools focus on preparing students for college, while others may work with more at risk student trying to bring back dropouts or teach vocational skills, he said.

"It's hard to generalize," Page said. "Each one is unique and intended to be innovative."

Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.