BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 445
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Date of Hearing: April 3, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 445 (Chavez) - As Amended: March 19, 2013
SUBJECT : Charter schools: supervisorial and oversight
responsibilities
SUMMARY : Authorizes the State Board of Education (SBE), by
mutual consent, to designate its supervisorial and oversight
responsibilities for a charter school it has approved to any
local educational agency (LEA).
EXISTING LAW authorizes the SBE, by mutual consent, to designate
its supervisorial and oversight responsibilities for a charter
school it has approved to any LEA in the county in which the
charter school is located or to the governing board of the
school district that first denied the petition.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : This bill expands the universe of LEAs to which the
SBE may designate its charter school supervisorial and oversight
responsibilities to any LEA in the state, regardless of location
or proximity to the charter school. Charter school supervision
and oversight include the following statutory responsibilities:
1)Identify at least one staff member as a contact person for the
charter school.
2)Visit each charter school as least annually.
3)Ensure that each charter school complies with all reports
required of it by law.
4)Monitor the fiscal condition of each charter school.
5)Provide timely notification to the California Department of
Education (CDE) if any of the following circumstances occur or
will occur:
a) A renewal of the charter is granted or denied;
b) The charter is revoked; or
c) The charter school will cease operation for any reason.
AB 445
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Supervising LEAs are allowed to charge the charter school for
the actual cost of supervision up to a maximum of 1% of the
school's revenue. The maximum is 3% of revenue if the charter
school is able to obtain substantially rent free facilities from
the LEA. An LEA that has been given the responsibility to
supervise and oversee a charter school that was authorized by
the SBE may charge the charter school for the full, actual cost.
As a matter of practice, the SBE has not delegated the oversight
of any SBE-authorized charter school to a LEA. Instead, that
responsibility has been delegated to the CDE. Accordingly , this
bill would have an impact only if the SBE changes its practice
in the future and delegates the responsibility to an LEA.
Reason for the bill . According to the author's office, there
are three reasons for this bill. First, some LEAs are not
equipped to supervise charter schools and may not be the best
choice for the charter school or LEA. However, under existing
law, an LEA can only be assigned oversight responsibilities by
mutual consent. If the LEA believed it was not equipped to take
on the responsibility, it would not consent to it. Moreover, it
is unlikely that the SBE would assign supervisorial and
oversight responsibilities to an LEA that does not have the
capacity to perform them.
Second, the author's office states that some charter schools are
not geographically close to their supervising LEA and may be
better supervised by an LEA that is geographically closer and
better able to oversee them. However, existing law requires the
SBE to assign oversight responsibilities to an LEA located in
the same county as the charter school or to the LEA that
initially rejected the charter school's petition. By removing
this requirement and allowing any LEA in the state to be
assigned oversight responsibilities, this bill exacerbates the
very problem it is attempting to avoid.
Third, the author's office states that the LEA that initially
rejected the charter petition may be hostile toward that school
and may not be the best choice to oversee it. Existing law
already addresses this by requiring the assignment of
responsibilities to be by mutual consent and allows the SBE to
select another LEA within the same county as the charter school.
AB 445
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Rick Pratt / ED. / (916) 319-2087