AB 950: Charter schools.

Existing law, the Charter Schools Act of 1992, authorizes a charter school petitioner, if the governing board of a school district denies a petition for the establishment of a charter school, to submit the petition to the county board of education, and, if the county board of education denies the petition, to then submit the petition to the State Board of Education. A charter school that is granted its charter through an appeal to the state board is required to submit a petition for renewal of the charter to the governing board of the school district that initially denied the charter.

This bill would instead authorize the petitioner to submit a petition for renewal to either the governing board of the school district that initially denied the charter or directly to the state board.

Existing law authorizes a county board of education to approve a petition for a countywide charter if the county board of education finds, among other things, that the pupil population cannot be served as well by a charter school that operates in only one school district and only if it is reasonably satisfied that the charter school has reasonable justification for why the charter school could not be established by petition to a school district.

This bill would delete those requirements. The bill would require a charter school petition to demonstrate that the charter school will provide a high-quality education program and that it will seek to share best and promising practices of the charter school with other traditional and charter public schools that have low academic performance. The bill would authorize a charter school petitioner, if a county board of education denies or revokes a petition, to submit the petition directly to the state board. To the extent the bill imposes additional duties on county boards of education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Existing law requires the state board, as a condition of approving a petition for the operation of a charter school, to find that the charter school will provide instructional services of statewide benefit that cannot be provided by the operation of the charter school in only one school district or county.

The bill would delete the requirement that the statewide benefit cannot be provided by a charter school operating in only one school district or county and would instead require, as part of the determination of the statewide benefit, to ensure that the charter school has described the manner in which the charter school will seek to share best and promising practices with other traditional and charter public schools with low academic performance, and would authorize the state board to establish other criteria or conditions to define a statewide benefit.

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 the statutory provisions noted above.