SARASOTA, Fla. ( WWSB ) - When one of Florida’s largest charter school networks set its sights on Oak Park School — Sarasota County’s only K-12 campus dedicated to students with disabilities — it brought the state’s charter-school push into one of public education’s most sensitive spaces.

Miami-based Mater Academy filed notices this month to open new charter schools on several of Sarasota County Schools’ underused public campuses — including Oak Park, Emma E. Booker Elementary and Brookside Middle — under Florida’s newly expanded and controversial “Schools of Hope” law. The notices were among dozens that Mater filed across the state this month seeking to claim classroom space on traditional campuses through a law designed to fast-track charter growth.

The filings do not mean Oak Park’s

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