Changes to Charter School Laws Jason Hancock Deputy Chief of Staff

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

Charter School Working Group Met and examined Idaho’s charter school laws from June 2012 through February 2013 Made recommendations around governance, oversight, and funding

H206- Charter School Funding Provides facilities funding for public charter schools Requires public charter schools to pay an authorizer fee to their authorizing entity

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)

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%

Charter School Facilities Funding For virtual charters, funding is the lesser of the formula calculation or 50% of the virtual charter school’s actual facility costs

Charter School Authorizer Fees Charter schools must pay their authorizer a fee to defray the authorizer’s cost of monitoring, evaluation and oversight For charter schools authorized by the Public Charter School Commission, the fee is equal to each charter school’s proportional share of the Commission’s appropriation, plus 15% Proportions determined by formula found in (8)

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 (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

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 school’s authorizer that the school is fiscally unsound

H221- Charter School Governance 6.Provide for procedures upon dissolution of a charter school 7.Allow additional authorizers (colleges and universities) 8.Allow for direct approval of public charter schools by colleges and universities, while maintaining the law’s current school district notification and feedback procedures 9.Reform the qualifications and appointing authorities for members of the Public Charter School Commission, to better align Idaho law with best practices

Questions? Jason Hancock (208)