Relates to the establishment, organization, and administration of charter schools

Section 2: Requires charter school applicants to specify a procedure for publicizing and conducting board meetings at the charter school.

Section 3: Requires the code of ethics articulated in the charter school application to include standards regarding conflicts of interest.

Section 4: Requires that applicants seeking to open a charter school under the RFP processes established by this legislation specifically designate the facilities intended to be used by the charter school. If the intended facility changes after the submission of the application, any necessary public hearings related to the new location must be conducted and an amended application must submitted.

Section 5: Designates that the terms of charters issued under the RFP process will be five instructional years.

Section 5-a: Makes the board of regents the sole charter entity for charter schools issues under the RFP process; clarifies that schools may convert to charter schools without being subject to the RFP process and that there is no limit on the number of conversion charter schools that can be created.

Section 6: Clarifies that charters originally issued by a board of education, the New York City Chancellor, and SUNY Trustees will apply to the Board of Regents for renewal applications.

Section 6-a: Requires charter schools applying for renewal to demonstrate the steps they have taken to recruit and retain students at risk of educational failure and requires that the information be included in renewal deliberations.

Section 7: Clarifies that the statutory deadlines for charters issued under current law do not apply to charters issued under the RFP process.

Section 8: Conforming language to remove reference to multiple charter entities.

Section 9: Conforming language to make the Board of Regents responsible for receipt of all fingerprints from prospective charter school employees.

Section 10: Establishes that charters issued under the RFP process will be required to include the information required by the RFP in their proposed charter.

Section 11: Conforming language removing references to multiple charter entities.

Section 12: Clarifying language requiring the Board of Regents to approve charters issued under the RFP process.

Section 13: Establishes that charters issued under the RFP process will be required to include the information required by the RFP in their proposed charter.

Section 14: Conforming language removing references to SUNY's responsibilities as a charter entity.

Section 15: Requires a charter revision prior to the relocation of a charter school and requires the same level of public input as required in the initial charter approval process.

Section 16: Increases the number of allowable non-conversion charter schools from 200 to 400 and establishes that 200 new charters will be authorized by under the RFP process.

Section 17: Conforming language removing references to prior entities.

Section 18: Establishes a RFP process by which the Board of Regents and SUNY Board of Trustees will seek to establish a statewide plan for charter growth to ensure that students throughout New York have access to quality education and school choice. Requires the SUNY Board of Trustees and Board of Regents to solicit public input prior to jointly issuing the RFP. Requires the Boards to consider the support of the local district as a factor in the application scoring process.

Establishes that successful applicants must demonstrate that they can intend to recruit and will make efforts to retain high-need students. Also requires that applicants demonstrate the acceptability of any co-location of a charter school in another public school building to the parents of students in the existing school building. Establishes that applicants may apply to either the SUNY Board of Trustees or the Board of Regents. Requires that applicants approved by the SUNY Board of Trustees be sent to the Board of Regents for consideration. Specifies that the SUNY Board can designate up to sixty-five charter school applications as being highly recommended, which would result in automatic approval by the Board of Regents. Establishes that the SUNY Board of Trustees can approve up to half of the charters under any individual RFP each calendar year until they reach their total of sixty-five.

Section 19: Conforming language removing references to multiple charter entities.

Section 20.

Establishes that charters issued under the RFP process will be issued for five instructional years.

Section 21: Conforming language removing references to multiple charter entities.

Section 22: Conforming language removing references to multiple charter entities.

Section 23: Conforming language removing references to multiple charter entities.

Section 24: Conforming language removing references to multiple charter entities.

Section 25: Requires that charters issued under the RFP process be required to comply with the same health, safety and sanitary requirements as all other public schools. Requires localities to treat charter schools the same as all other public schools regarding issues of zoning, land use, and building code requirements. Allows charter schools to seek a waiver if compliance with this section would create an undue financial hardship or other good cause. Charter schools issued a waiver under this section will be treated as non-public schools.

Section 26: Allows the state to Comptroller to audit charter schools at her or his discretion.

Section 26a: Applies the same conflict of interest provisions and code of ethics to charter board members, officers, and charter school employees as apply to officers, board members and employees of public school districts.

Section 27: Directs the Commissioner of education to create a common student application for all charter schools and that such applications be made available in languages predominant in the local community. Directs to the Commissioner to promulgate regulations to ensure that all admission lotteries are conducted in a transparent and equitable manner. Requires that such lotteries be held in a manner consistent with public officers law.

Section 27a: Clarifies that a charter school may focus its services on students in need of special assistance, including English language learners and students with disabilities.

Section 28: Conforming legislation to eliminate references to multiple charter entities.

Section 29: Conforming legislation to eliminate references to multiple charter entities.

Section 30: Conforming legislation to eliminate references to multiple charter entities.

Section 31: Conforming legislation to eliminate references to multiple charter entities.

Section 32:

Conforming legislation to eliminate references to multiple charter entities.

Section 33: Conforming legislation to eliminate references to multiple charter entities.

Section 34: Requires charter schools to make their annual reports more widely available to the public through posting on the school's website, distribution to the local newspapers and availability at charter school board meetings. Also requires inclusion of any audits by the State Comptroller in their annual report.

Section 35: Requires charter school annual reports to include information regarding the charter school's efforts to recruit and retain high-need students during the previous school year and their plans to attract, recruit and retain such students in the coming year.

Section 36: Requires the annual Education Department charter school report to include the number of charter schools that were closed in the prior year and the reason for their closing.

Section 37: Requires the Board of Regents to conduct an annual review of charter school best practices and make such information available to public school districts.

Section 38: Technical clean-up language to strike an outdated section of law.

Section 39: Authorizes Boards of Education to contract with educational management organizations to assist in the turn-around of persistently low achieving schools. Requires the Department to establish a list of qualified not-for-profit management organizations for districts to choose from.

Existing law

Under current law there are multiple charter entities; the board of regents, the SUNY board of trustees and local school boards. Existing law limits the number of non-conversion charter schools in New York to 200. The SUNY Board of Trustees is allowed to approve 100 charters while the Regents and local districts are allowed to authorize an additional 100 in total. Current law includes a geographic restriction requiring that at least 50 of the non-SUNY charters be reserved for the City of New York to authorize. Conversion charter schools can be created without limit. Current law allows the Regents to approve charter schools operated by for profit management organizations and corporations. Current law does not require charter board members, staff, or employees to adhere to any statutory conflict of interest and ethical requirements such as the requirement to disclose a financial interest in an issue before the board, recusal from action on such issues and limitations on gifts that could be perceived to be intended to influence an board member officer or employee. Current law does not require that public board meetings be held at the site of the charter school. Current law includes no specific requirements making annual reports public. Current law requires that charter schools make a "good faith" effort to recruit high need students, but, there is no process in place to monitor those efforts, or to consider the those efforts as a part of the criteria for reauthorization. Current law gives SED the authority to perform audits of charter schools. Current law does not authorize of boards of education to contract with educational management organizations. JUSTIFICATION : The federal Race to the Top grant competition will award funding to a select number of states with educational policies that encourage the growth of high quality charter schools and provide options for school district officials seeking to turn around low performing schools. This legislation seeks to enhance New York's competitiveness by increasing the charter school cap while promoting a thoughtful statewide approach to charter school growth. This approach will provide equitable access to a greater variety of students, and greater educational benefit to all students.

To date, charter schools in New York have largely succeeded in providing access to high-quality, public educational alternatives to traditional school systems. Unfortunately, the current system of authorizing charters has resulted in an uneven distribution of charter school opportunities across grade levels and throughout the state. This legislation reforms the chartering process to allow the SUNY Board of Trustees and Board of Regents to jointly issue competitive request for proposals which will allow them to award charters to most innovative and highest quality applicants. The SUNY Board and Regents could also use the RFP process to grant charters to applicants seeking to enhance options for students left unserved by the current system.

This legislation will also require charter schools to be more accountable with regard to their responsibility to recruit and retain high needs students. The successful programs in charter schools should be made available to the students who most need the assistance and opportunities that these innovative programs provide.

This legislation will also enhance the public's confidence in charter schools by allowing for audits by the state comptroller and by requiring charter board members to meet the same conflict of interest and ethical obligations as elected school board members. The bill would also help ensure that tax dollars be used for educating students to the greatest extent possible by granting future charters solely to not-for-profit charter school operators.

Requiring a common application for all charter schools will simplify the process for parents seeking to enroll their child in a charter school while requiring that charter school applications be printed in the community's most common languages helps English language learners with the enrollment process. Creating an open process for charter school lotteries will also enhance public confidence in the charter school lottery process where applicable.

This bill also requires greater distribution of information about charter schools, including posting of audits and publicizing the efforts to recruit and retain students who need academic support.

Legislative history

This is a new bill.

Fiscal implications

This legislation will enhance New York's Race to the Top federal grant application which could provide the State Education Department and public schools with between $350 and $700 million if New York should win an award. The State Education Department could incur some additional costs related to the administration and oversight to new and renewing charters.

Local fiscal implications

Local school districts will incur a tuition expense for each student that chooses a charter school.

Effective date

This legislation takes effect immediately except for sections six, six-a, eight, nine, eleven, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-five and thirty-eight which take effect January 1, 2011.