SUMMARY:  LC 49 0405  LC 49 0428S (SCS)  LC 49 0550S (SB 153/AP)

The bill states the intent for the legislature to study alternative education models and funding including those focused on dropout prevention, high school credit recovery, and service of adult and incarcerated students. The study shall include alternative charter schools and state support of those schools.  The study is to occur this year and next and conclude with a recommendation regarding alternative education models and funding.

The current code section on alternative education programs is amended to include the new category of alternative charter schools.

An alternative charter school is defined as a local charter school authorized by one or more local school systems which provides an alternative education program and which provides programs and services focused on dropout recovery or high school credit recovery.

A charter petitioner could be one or more private individuals, private organizations, state or local public entities, or adult learning providers, or any group of these working in cooperation to submit or initiate a petition to establish alternative charter school as a local charter school.

A system-collaborative state charter school is defined as one authorized by the State Charter Schools Commission that provides programs and services for dropout recovery or high school credit recovery and is governed by a board of directors which may include personnel from the local boards of education of the geographic region which the charter school serves. 

The State Board of Education and the Department of Education, in consultation with authorizing local school system(s), shall establish a process to designate alternative charter schools. In addition to meeting the requirements for all charter schools, these petitioners must demonstrate how the proposed alternative charter school will increase graduation opportunities for traditional high school students, decrease dropout rates in local school systems, and provide high school credit recovery opportunities.

No later than July 1, 2021, each system-collaborative charter school that has not transitioned to become an alternative charter school shall operate as a state chartered special school authorized directly by the State Board of Education. [NOTE: For those who are new, the State Board chartered schools prior to the 2012 constitutional amendment creating the State Charter Schools Commission.]

For the duration of its current charter contract, each school that transitions from operating as a system-collaborative state charter school to operating as a state chartered special school shall be eligible to receive the same amount of funding directly from the State Board of Education they would have received as system-collaborative charters but on a pro rata basis from the time they start operating as a state chartered special school.

If a system-collaborative state charter school does not transition to a state chartered special school by July 1, 2021, it will not be eligible for funding available to state charter schools after June 30, 2021.

The Department of Education shall provide administrative and technical support and shall be authorized to allocate funds, including state and federal funds, proceeds of general obligation debt, or any available funds, for any school that transfers from operating as a system-collaborative state charter school to operating as a state chartered special school. The Department may withhold a 2% administrative fee.

Alternative charter schools would be funded under 20-2-154.1 subject to appropriations and will be treated consistently with all other public schools with respect to statutory funding formulas and grants. 

Each system-collaborative state charter school shall be eligible to petition one or more local school systems to become an alternative charter school.

The State Board shall not provide for the expansion, extension, renewal, or replication of former system-collaborative state charter schools as state chartered special needs, but the schools may increase student enrollment by no more than 3% and add no more than one school site each school year.  Any school site opened after July 1, 2021, must be located within the same RESA district as the location of the former system-collaborative school's headquarters were located on January 1, 2021.  School sites opened by these schools after July 1, 2021, shall be eligible for QBE funds only as defined in 20-2-2062. 

EFFECTIVE DATE:

July 1, 2021