BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 622
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 622 (Campos)
As Amended April 15, 2013
Majority vote
EDUCATION 7-0 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Buchanan, Olsen, Campos, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Ch�vez, Nazarian, Weber, | |Bradford, |
| |Williams | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Eggman, Gomez, Hall, |
| | | |Ammiano, Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Harkey, Bigelow, |
| | | |Donnelly, Linder, Wagner |
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SUMMARY : Requires charter school petitions to be posted on the
authorizing school district's Internet Web site as well as the
charter school's Internet Web site, as specified. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Requires, if the petitioners of a proposed charter school
maintain an Internet Web site for the proposed or an existing
charter school, the petitioners to post on the proposed or
existing charter school's Internet Web site a copy of a
summary of the petition and a copy of the initial petition,
renewal petition, or appeal petition, and any substantive
revisions to the petition submitted to the charter school
authorizer that contains all the information required to be
part of the petition for the establishment of a charter
school, within five days from the date of submission.
2)Requires a charter school that maintains an Internet Web site
to post a copy of the summary of the charter school's petition
and a copy of the charter school's petition on the school's
Internet Web site.
3)Requires a charter school authorizer to post on its Internet
Web site all of the following:
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a) A summary of the petition and a copy of the initial
petition, renewal petition, or appeal petition submitted
for the establishment of a charter school that is submitted
to the charter school authorizer for approval, renewal, or
appeal, within five days from the date of submission.
b) Any substantive revisions of the petition submitted for
initial approval or renewal, within five days from the date
of submission.
c) A summary of the charter school petition and the charter
school petition for each charter school it has authorized.
4)Requires, an initial petition, a renewal petition, or an
appeal petition submitted to a charter school authorizer for
purposes of establishing a charter school to simultaneously
include an electronic copy of the summary of the charter
school petition and the charter school petition; and,
specifies that any substantive revisions to the initial
petition or renewal petition submitted to the charter school
authorizer shall be submitted in electronic form.
5)Defines "charter school authorizer" to mean the governing
board of a school district, the county board of education, or
the state board, as the case may be.
EXISTING LAW establishes a process for the submission of a
petition for the establishment of a charter school. Authorizes
a petition, identifying a single charter school to operate
within the geographical boundaries of the school district, to be
submitted to the school district. Authorizes, if the governing
board of a school district denies a petition for the
establishment of a charter school, the petitioner to elect to
submit the petition to the county office of education (COE).
Authorizes, if the COE denies the charter, the petitioner to
submit the petition to the state board of education (SBE).
Authorizes a school that serves a countywide service to submit
the charter petition directly to the county office of education.
Authorizes a school that serves a statewide purpose to go
directly to the SBE.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, to the extent this measure creates increased costs to
charter schools, there will be General Fund/Proposition 98
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(GF/98) cost pressure, of at least $65,000, to charter schools
to complete the requirements of this measure. GF/98 state
reimbursable mandated costs, of approximately $95,000, to
charter authorizers to post charter school petition, renewal,
and appeal information on its Internet website within five days
of submission.
COMMENTS : According to the California Department of Education
(CDE), the 2012-13 count of operating charter schools is 1,062
which includes three statewide benefit charters and 33 SBE
approved charters, with student enrollment of more than 456,000
in the state. Charter schools are part of the state's public
education system and are funded by public dollars. Charter
schools are authorized by school district boards, county boards
of education or the SBE.
This bill requires charter school petitions to be posted on the
school district authorizer's Internet Web site and on the
proposed charter school's Internet Web site, if one exists.
According to the author, this bill provides communities
contemplating the formation of a charter school with information
necessary for a comprehensive assessment of the proposal. The
charter is the guiding document for the potential school that
includes, among other important information, the school's
academic goals for students and the methods for student
achievement. This foundational document lays out vital details
about how the school will operate. A community must be able to
review and evaluate all of these particulars before they can
make a truly informed decision. This bill simply requires that
a charter school petition be posted online and thereby available
for the public and interested parties to examine prior to a vote
by the authorizing entity.
A 2012 report by the California Research Bureau (CRB) entitled,
California Charter Oversight, recommends making charter school
petitions available to the public. They state, "Our first
recommendation is to increase the transparency of charter school
authorization and charter school operation. Charter schools
promise that they can be held accountable for their performance
by parents and the community. Charter schools set out their
agreed upon performance standards in their charter or petition
document. When CRB attempted to collect charters and petitions,
we encountered a number of problems. If parents and community
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members are going to hold charter schools accountable for
performance, they need access to the charter. We would encourage
the Legislature to mandate that charter schools make their
petition or charter readily available to the general public."
This bill also requires petitions for existing charter schools
to be posted both on the district's Web site and the charter
school's Web site.
Analysis Prepared by : Chelsea Kelley / ED. / (916) 319-2087
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