05- 071 C.M.R. ch. 140, § 2

Current through 2024-25, June 19, 2024

Section 071-140-2 - AUTHORIZERS AND AUTHORIZING OF CHARTER SCHOOLS

1. Practices and procedures

An authorizer must develop and maintain policies and practices consistent with nationally-recognized principles and professional standards for authorizing public charter schools.

For purposes of determining whether an authorizer's policies and practices conform to nationally-recognized principles and professional standards, the Department of Education will evaluate the authorizer's policies and practices on the basis of the principles and standards set forth in the publication, Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing, published by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, copyrighted 2010. This publication is available on the Department's Website on the Internet.

2. Maintaining list of interested parties

An authorizer shall maintain a list of persons interested in the activities of the authorizer and any charter schools that it may authorize. The authorizer shall notify persons on that list when the authorizer issues a request for proposals (RFP) or accepts a charter school application, and when a charter school it authorizes begins accepting applications for enrollment. Notice may be provided by e-mail, except that it must be provided by regular mail for people who do not have e-mail at their homes.

3. Solicitation of charter school applications

A. In order to invite, solicit, encourage and guide the development of high-quality public charter school applications, an authorizer shall develop a request for proposals (RFP) that meets the standards of Title 20-A section 2406. The RFP must require the applicant to include detailed plans for the provision of special education services in compliance with state and federal law.

B. An RFP must be issued not fewer than 60 days from the deadline date for submission of applications.

C. An RFP must be published as broadly as possible to ensure that all entities interested in applying for a charter have notice of the opportunity to submit an application. At a minimum, notice of the RFP must be published on two consecutive weekends in the State Paper designated in Title 1, section 551 and must be provided to interested parties as described in subsection 2. The RFP must also be submitted to the department, and the department shall include the RFP, on the Department of Education charter school Website on the Internet.

4. Oversight of chartered schools

An authorizer is responsible for monitoring the performance and legal compliance of each charter school it authorized.

5. Reporting to the Department

In addition to any other report required by law or rule, an authorizer must submit the following to the Department or the Commissioner.

A.Annual report. An authorizer must submit a report to the Commissioner, annually, within 60 days after the end of each school fiscal year, summarizing the performance of all schools it has authorized, as well as the other specific information set forth in statute.

B.Decision on charters. An authorizer must report to the Commissioner, within 10 days after taking any of the following actions:

(1) Approval or denial of an application to open a charter school;

(2) Renewal or refusal to renew a charter; or

(3) Revocation of a charter.

C.Assessment results. An authorizer must report the results of state assessments to the Department in the same manner as other school administrative units report results.

6. Department oversight and sanction of authorizers

The Department is authorized to investigate and impose sanctions on authorizers in response to deficiencies in authorizer performance or legal compliance.

For purposes of determining whether an authorizer's performance conforms to nationally recognized principles and professional standards, the Department will compare the authorizer's performance to the principles and standards set forth in the publication, Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing, published by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, copyrighted 2010. This publication is available on the department's charter school Website on the Internet.

7. Collaborating authorizers

Collaborating entities that intend to authorize a charter school must form a legal structure that sets forth the rights and responsibilities of each party in the collaborative, including designation of responsibility for special education for students in the charter school.

A charter school must be located within the boundaries of one of the school administrative units that is a member of the collaborative. A charter school authorized by a collaborative is considered to have been authorized by a local school board, for purposes of determining when the limit of 10 charter schools has been reached under Title 20-A section 2405, subsection 9.

8. Education service providers

Except as provided in this subsection 8, a public charter school may contract with an education service provider for a limited scope of education or management services. An authorizer shall ensure that the scope of services delivered through such a contract does not remove responsibility and control of essential programmatic elements of the school from the charter school's governing board.

A virtual charter school may contract with an education service provider for education design, implementation or comprehensive management of the virtual public charter school program.

A charter school's governing board, leaders and managers must be legally and operationally independent from any education service provider. In determining whether boards, leaders and managers are independent of the service provider, the authorizer must consider all factors, including but not limited to:

A. Whether the charter school's governing board is selected by, or includes members who are employees of, the education service provider;

B. Whether the charter school has an independent attorney, accountant and audit firm that works for the charter school and not the education service provider;

C. Whether the contract between the charter school and the education service provider was negotiated at "arms length," clearly describes each party's rights and responsibilities and specifies reasonable and feasible terms under which either party may terminate the contract;

D. Whether the fee to be paid by the charter school to the education service provider is reasonable for the type of services provided; and

E. Whether any other agreements, e.g., loans or leases between the charter school and the education service provider are fair and reasonable, documented appropriately, align with market rates, and include terms that will not change if the contract is terminated.

05- 071 C.M.R. ch. 140, § 2