SB 1434

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law, The Charter Schools Act of 1992, permits teachers and parents to petition the governing board of a school district to approve a charter school to operate independently from the existing school district structure as a method of accomplishing, among other things, improved pupil learning. This bill would authorize a school district, county office of education, or charter school to file a grievance with the State Board of Education alleging a violation of an obligation of a chartering authority, as provided. The bill would require the state board's Advisory Commission on Charter Schools to hold a public hearing on the grievance and, if it finds the complaint meritorious, make a specific recommendation to the state board, which may include specific corrective action or suspension or revocation of the chartering authority's authority to approve, oversee, renew, and revoke charters. (2) Existing law requires a charting authority to meet certain charter school authorizing, supervisorial, and oversight responsibilities. This bill would authorize the state board to approve a county office of education or a school district with demonstrated authorizing and oversight capacity to serve as an expanded authorizer of charter schools allowing that chartering entity to assume the charter school authorizing, supervisorial, and oversight responsibilities of another school district in certain situations, as specified. (3) Existing law requires the governing board of a school district, after receiving a charter petition, to hold a public hearing on the provisions of the charter and prohibits the governing board of a school district from denying a petition for the establishment of a charter school unless it makes written factual findings, specific to the particular petition, setting forth specific facts to support certain findings. This bill would require the governing board of the school district to base the specific facts on substantial evidence and provide the evidence to the petitioners and make it available to the public before the hearing. Existing law authorizes a charter school petitioner, if the governing board of a school district denies a petition, to submit the petition for the establishment of a charter school to the county board of education. Existing law also authorizes a charter school petitioner, if the county board of education denies a petition, to submit the petition for the establishment of a charter school to the state board. This bill would authorize a charter school petitioner to appeal to the county board of education if, after the petitioner submits a charter petition, the school district fails to act on the petition within required timelines or the governing board of a school district fails to adopt required findings to deny a petition. The bill would also permit a charter school petitioner to appeal to the state board if the county board of education fails to act on the petition within required timelines or the county board of education fails to adopt required findings to deny a petition. Existing law requires a charter petition that either the county board of education or the state board fails to act upon within 120 days of receipt to be subject to judicial review. This bill would, instead, require a charter petition that the state board fails to act upon within 120 days of receipt to be subject to judicial review. Existing law authorizes the state board, by mutual agreement, to designate its supervisorial and oversight responsibilities for a charter school approved by the state board to any local educational agency in the county in which the charter school is located or to the governing board of the school district that first denied the petition. This bill would also authorize the state board to designate its responsibilities to a county office of education. Existing law requires a charter school that is granted its charter through an appeal to the state board and elects to seek renewal of its charter, before expiration of the charter, to submit its petition for renewal to the governing board of the school district that initially denied the charter. This bill would, instead, authorize a charter school that is granted its charter through an appeal to the state board or a county board of education and elects to seek renewal of its charter, before expiration of the charter, to submit its petition for renewal to the governing board of the school district that initially denied the charter. Existing law authorizes a charter school, if the governing board of the school district denies the charter school's petition for renewal, to petition the state board for the renewal of its charter. This bill would authorize a charter school, if the governing board of the school district denies the charter school's petition for renewal, to petition the charter school's current chartering authority for the renewal of its charter. (4) Existing law authorizes a county board of education to approve a countywide charter only if it finds, in addition to other requirements, that the educational services to be provided by the charter school will offer services to a pupil population that will benefit from those services and that cannot be served as well by a charter school that operates in only one school district in the county. This bill would, instead, authorize a county board of education to approve a countywide charter only if it finds, in addition to other requirements, that the educational services to be provided by the charter school will offer services to a pupil population that will benefit from those services. Existing law authorizes a county board of education to grant a countywide charter only if it is satisfied that granting the charter is consistent with sound educational practice and that the charter school has reasonable justification for why it could not be established by petition to a school district. This bill would, instead, authorize a county board of education to grant a countywide charter only if it is satisfied that granting the charter is consistent with sound educational practice and that the charter school petitioners have demonstrated that the charter school will provide a high-quality educational program. The bill would require the county board of education to also ensure that the charter school has described in the petition the manner in which the charter school will seek to share best and promising practices of the charter school with other traditional public schools and charter schools that have low academic performance. Existing law prohibits a charter school petitioner from submitting a petition for a countywide charter to the state board on appeal. This bill would authorize a charter school petitioner to submit a petition for a countywide charter to the state board on appeal. (5) Existing law authorizes the state board to approve a charter for the operation of a state charter school that may operate at multiple sites throughout the state. This bill would authorize the state board to approve a charter for the operation of a state charter school that may operate at one or multiple sites throughout the state. Existing law authorizes the state board to grant a petition for the operation of a state charter school only if it finds that the proposed state charter school would provide instructional services of statewide benefit that cannot be provided by a charter school operating in only one school district, or only in one county. This bill would instead authorize the state board to grant a petition for the operation of a state charter school only if it is satisfied that the charter school petitioners have demonstrated that the proposed state charter school will provide a high-quality educational program and it finds that the proposed state charter school will provide instructional services of statewide benefit. The bill would require the state board, as part of the determination of the statewide benefit, to ensure that the proposed charter school has described in the petition the manner in which the charter school will seek to share best and promising practices of the charter school with other traditional public schools and charter schools that have low academic performance. The bill would authorize the state board to establish other criteria or conditions to determine or define a statewide benefit. (6) Existing law authorizes a chartering authority that is given the responsibility for supervisorial oversight of a charter school approved by the state board to charge the charter school for the actual costs of supervisorial oversight. This bill would require that chartering authority to submit annually a financial statement to each charter school it oversees that accounts for the use of any oversight fees collected from the charter school. Existing law authorizes charter schools to separately purchase administrative or other services from the chartering authority. This bill would require the charter school governing body and the governing board of the chartering authority to each approve any services agreements between the charter school and the chartering authority in a public meeting and make a finding that documents the validity of the fair market value of the agreement. The bill would authorize a county superintendent of schools to, based upon a written complaint or other information that justifies an investigation, conduct an investigation, as specified, to determine whether the school district has used supervisorial oversight fees properly or has charged service fees far in excess of fair market value. The bill also authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction to, based upon a written complaint or other information that justifies an investigation, conduct an investigation into a chartering county office of education's compliance with these provisions. Existing law defines "costs of supervisorial oversight" for the above purposes. This bill would require a school district to include charter school oversight fees in it's annual audit, as specified. (7) This bill would also correct cross-references, make conforming changes, and make other nonsubstantive changes. (8) To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on school districts and county offices of education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.