Changes to Charter School Laws

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Changes to Charter School Laws
Jason Hancock Deputy Chief of Staff
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Charter School Working Group

• Idaho Association of School Administrators
• Idaho School Boards Association
• Idaho Charter School Network
• Coalition of Idaho Charter School Families
• Idaho Public Charter School Commission
• Idaho State Department of Education

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Charter School Working Group

• Met and examined Idahos charter school laws from
  June 2012 through February 2013
• Made recommendations around governance,
  oversight, and funding

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H206- Charter School Funding

• Provides facilities funding for public charter
  schools
• Requires public charter schools to pay an
  authorizer fee to their authorizing entity

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Charter School Facilities Funding

• Creates a state funding stream for charter
  schools to pay facility costs
• Calculated as a percentage of the average amount
  of per pupil funding received by school districts
  for bond plant facility levies
• FY14 distribution equal to 20 of statewide
  average funding for school districts (1.4m)
• FY15 distribution equal to 30 of statewide
  average funding for school districts (2.1m)

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Charter School Facilities Funding

• Future distributions will increase by 10 each
  time public schools budget increases by 3 or
  more, and decrease by 10 each time public
  schools budget is cut, year-over-year, otherwise,
  stays the same as previous year
• Minimum distribution percentage is 20
• Maximum distribution percentage is 50

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Charter School Facilities Funding

• For virtual charters, funding is the lesser of
  the formula calculation or 50 of the virtual
  charter schools actual facility costs

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Charter School Authorizer Fees

• Charter schools must pay their authorizer a fee
  to defray the authorizers cost of monitoring,
  evaluation and oversight
• For charter schools authorized by the Public
  Charter School Commission, the fee is equal to
  each charter schools proportional share of the
  Commissions appropriation, plus 15
• Proportions determined by formula found in
  33-5208(8)

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Charter School Authorizer Fees

• For charter schools authorized by any other
  entity besides the Commission, the fee is the
  lesser of the actual, documented authorizer cost
  or the formula calculation found in 33-5208(8)
  generally 4,300 to 17,200, depending on charter
  school size
• All charter schools are allowed to divert up to
  10 of their fee to pay membership fees to any
  organization that provides technical assistance,
  training and advocacy for charter schools

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H221- Charter School Governance

1. Eliminates notices of defect
2. Require periodic renewals of all public charter
   schools
3. Create performance contracts for charter schools
4. Create a process that allows school-district
   authorized charter schools to become LEAs
5. Allow the SDE to reduce the front-loading of
   charter school funding if notified by the
   schools authorizer that the school is fiscally
   unsound

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H221- Charter School Governance

1. Provide for procedures upon dissolution of a
   charter school
2. Allow additional authorizers (colleges and
   universities)
3. Allow for direct approval of public charter
   schools by colleges and universities, while
   maintaining the laws current school district
   notification and feedback procedures
4. Reform the qualifications and appointing
   authorities for members of the Public Charter
   School Commission, to better align Idaho law with
   best practices

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Questions?

• Jason Hancock
• jhancock_at_sde.idaho.gov
• [phone]