Charter Schools: Applying Will Not Be Easy

| Post By Susan Perkins Weston |

Kentucky's new charter school law (House Bill 520) requires those who want to open public charter schools to complete demanding applications. Here, I'll summarize of the requirements, but readers should know that the law itself adds further details for nearly all of the items listed.

The Big Idea
Each charter school application must specify:

• The school's mission and vision 
• The student population and community the school will target
• Ages and grades the school will served
• The academic program the school will offer
• The instructional methods the school will use
• An explanation of how the school's program can improve the achievement of traditionally under-performing students 

Goals and Measures
The application must identify:

• Student achievement goals and evaluation methods
• A plan for programmatic audits and assessments
• A plan for measuring progress on school’s performance framework

(Added note: I'm puzzled about how those three requirements relate to one another, and especially about how the goals and the performance framework are related.)

Students and Services
Next, the application must share the school's plans for:

• Recruiting and enrolling students
• Identifying and serving students with disabilities, English language learners, bilingual students, and students who are academically behind and gifted
• Offering extracurricular and co-curricular programs
• Offering health services and food services
• Disciplining students
• Involving parents and communities

Staff and Leadership
A school needs adults as much as students, so the application must propose:

• Staffing charts for five years
• Plans for recruiting and developing staff
• A draft personnel handbook
• Ethics rules for staff, officers, directors
• A governance structure, including initial board members and draft board by-laws

Other Operating Details
In addition, the application must address core business issues, including:

• Planned, minimum, and maximum enrollment
• Calendar for the school year
• Schedule for the school day
• A five year budget
• Fiscal policies
• Facilities
• Insurance coverage
• Start-up steps for opening the school
• Process for resolving disputes with the charter authorizer
• Process for closing down the school if required

On the one hand, this application process seems likely to require deep expertise, sustained thought and very careful planning. On the other hand, schools are complex organizations doing intense and important work: everything on that list truly needs attention before a new public school opens its doors.