BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 645 (Simitian)
Hearing Date: 05/23/2011 Amended: 05/11/2011
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 7-1
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 645 establishes new criteria for charter school
renewal and authorizes a charter school not meeting the renewal
criteria to apply to the State Board of Education (SBE) for a
determination of academic eligibility for the renewal of its
charter by submitting evidence of the school's academic success,
as specified.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13
2013-14 Fund
SBE eligibility determination Potentially
significant ongoing costs General
New renewal criteria and process Potential savings/costs in
future years General
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Existing law provides for the establishment of charter schools
in California, which may be authorized by a school district, a
county board of education, or the State Board of Education, as
specified. Charters can be granted for not more than five years
and statute specifies that each renewal shall be for five years.
Existing law further requires the renewal and any material
revision of the provisions of the charter to be made only with
the approval of the authority that granted the charter. (EC §
47601 et. seq.)
In order to be renewed, a charter school must meet at least one
of the following criteria:
1) Attainment of the school's Academic Performance Index (API)
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growth target in two of the last three years or in the aggregate
last three years; 2) a ranking in deciles 4 to 10, inclusive,
on the API in the prior year or in two of the last three years;
3) a ranking in deciles 4 to 10, inclusive, on the API for a
demographically comparable school in two of the last three
years; 4) academic performance that is at least equal to the
academic performance of the public schools that the charter
school pupils would otherwise been required to attend; or 5)
qualification for participation in the Alternative School
Accountability Model (ASAM). (EC § 47607)
This bill makes the criteria for charter renewal more stringent.
Specifically, this bill prohibits an authorizer of a charter
school from considering or granting the renewal of the school's
charter unless the school, based on data available as of October
1 of the fiscal year of renewal, meets one of the following
criteria before having its charter renewed: 1) An API score of
at least 700 in the most recent year; 2) a cumulative API growth
of at least 30 points over the last three API cycles, as
defined; 3) a ranking in deciles 6 to 10, inclusive, on the API
for a demographically comparable school in the prior year or in
two of the last three years: as specified; 4) participation in
an alternative accountability system (ASAM); 5) determination of
academic eligibility for renewal from the SBE within the prior
12 months. This bill specifies that in the absence of meeting
these criteria, a charter cannot be renewed by the authorizing
agency.
Under this bill, if a charter is not eligible to be considered,
the charter school can ask for a determination of academic
eligibility for renewal by the SBE; this is functionally an
appeal from being automatically disqualified. This bill provides
that a charter school may apply to the SBE by submitting
evidence of the school's academic success which may include, but
is not limited to, information on individual pupil achievement,
including longitudinal data that demonstrate individual pupil
progress, analysis of similar pupil populations, or other
relevant data as determined by the school.
This bill requires the advisory committee appointed by the SBE
(for the purpose of making recommendations to the Board
regarding non-classroom based instruction, funding
determinations and allocations) to hold a public hearing on the
matter and make a recommendation to the SBE on the application,
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based on information provided by the school and anyone
participating in the hearing. The SBE would ultimately determine
eligibility.
In order to implement this process, CDE staff would need to
develop a procedure for receiving and evaluating materials
submitted by charter schools not deemed eligible to apply to
their authorizing agencies for renewal. This bill specifies that
the committee can consider "other relevant data as determined by
the school"; depending on what is included, there may be other
additional workload costs. Moreover, to the extent that the CDE
has to review the academic eligibility application packages and
make preliminary recommendations to the advisory committee,
there would be costs to the CDE. There could also be additional
costs the advisory committee for community notices and overhead
(as well as for reimbursed for travel and per diem allowances)
to the extent that additional meetings are required.
If a charter is determined to be academically ineligible, the
process ends and the charter cannot be renewed nor offered any
future appeal. To the extent that this is the case, there will
likely be state and local administrative savings, and the
process will be streamlined. To the extent that the new criteria
for eligibility result in denying more charter renewals,
however, there may be additional costs to the state if the
students attending those charter transfer to traditional
district schools. Charter schools are funded less than district
schools and, while funding for district school varies by
district, charter schools are typically funded at approximately
$275 less per pupil than district schools.
If the SBE determines a charter school to be academically
eligible to apply for renewal, the process goes back to the
local level; the authorizing agency can consider renewing the
charter. If the charter renewal is then denied, it would still
be eligible for appeal to the SBE, as under existing law.