BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 739 (Pavley) - Charter schools: sited outside boundaries:
report: prohibition
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|Version: April 6, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 7 - 1 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 4, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill prohibits a school district from authorizing
a new charter school to locate outside of its jurisdiction if it
is assigned a negative certification. Additionally, this bill
authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(Superintendent) to perform a study and make recommendations on
the number of charter schools that are sited outside the
boundaries of their chartering school districts.
Fiscal
Impact:
The California Department of Education (CDE) indicates that
this bill creates one-time costs of about $276,000 General
Fund for two positions to conduct the study authorized by this
bill. In addition, there may be additional cost pressures to
implement any recommendations proposed by CDE.
The prohibition of a school district assigned a negative
SB 739 (Pavley) Page 1 of
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certification to authorize new charter schools outside of the
school district's jurisdiction, is not expected to result in a
significant increase in state costs.
Background: Under existing law, the Charter Schools Act of 1992 provides
for the establishment of charter schools in California for the
purpose, among other things, to improve student learning and
expand learning experiences for pupils who are identified as
academically low achieving. Charter schools are public schools
that provide instruction in any combination of grades
kindergarten through grade 12. Except where specifically noted
otherwise, California law exempts charter schools from many of
the statutes and regulations that apply to schools and school
districts.
A charter school may be authorized by a school district, a
county board of education, or the State Board of Education, as
specified. A chartering authority may charge for the actual
costs of supervisorial oversight of a charter school, not to
exceed a certain amount, known as an "oversight fee." These
fees support functions such as assessing the fiscal condition of
the charter school.
Current law provides that charter schools unable to locate
within the jurisdiction of the authorizing school district, may
establish one site outside the boundaries of the school
district, but within the same county, if: (1) the charter school
has attempted to locate a single site to house the entire
program but it is unavailable in the area the charter school
chooses to locate and (2) the site is needed for temporary use
during a construction project. In addition, the school district
in which the charter school proposes to operate must be notified
in advance of the charter petition approval and the county
superintendent of schools and the Superintendent must be
notified of the location of the charter school before it begins
operations.
Local education agencies (LEAs) are required to file two reports
during the fiscal year (interim reports) on the status of the
LEA's fiscal health. The interim reports must include a
certification of whether or not the LEA is able to meet its
financial obligations. A negative certification is assigned when
a district will be unable to meet its financial obligations for
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the remainder of the current year or for the subsequent fiscal
year.
According to the author's office, this bill is intended to
remove potential incentives for a school district under
financial distress to authorize charter schools as a means to
generate revenue through oversight fees.
Proposed Law:
This bill would prohibit a school district from authorizing new
charter schools to locate outside of its jurisdiction if it is
assigned a negative certification.
This bill would also authorize the Superintendent to study the
number of charter schools located outside the boundaries of the
chartering school district and report to the Legislature on its
findings by December 31, 2016. This bill authorizes the
Superintendent to make findings on the frequency and location of
charters located outside of the boundaries of the chartering
school district; the reason for the charter schools' locations;
and whether the school district where the charter school is
located was notified in advance of the charter petition
approval. Finally, the bill allows the Superintendent to make
recommendations on the authority of state or local entities to
enforce charter law.
Related
Legislation:1. SB 1263 (Pavley, 2014) would have, among other things, authorized
a charter school to locate outside the jurisdiction of the
chartering school district with written approval from the host
school district where it intends to locate. This bill was
eventually vetoed by the Governor citing concerns that it could
force existing charter schools to relocate. The Governor also
indicated in the veto message that he has assembled a team to
examine the issues that the bill was trying to address and the
team will come back with solutions that minimize disruption to
students and parents.
Proposed Author
Amendments: The author has proposed an amendment to delete
Section 1 of the bill to reduce potential costs.
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