Charter schools: renewal: accountability standards.

(1) The Charter Schools Act of 1992 limits the duration of charters to a period not to exceed 5 years and authorizes the chartering authority to grant one or more subsequent renewals for an additional period of 5 years. The act specifies criteria regarding academic performance which a charter school that has been in operation for 4 years is required to meet in order to receive a renewal of its charter. This bill instead would make the duration of each initial charter for a period of 5 years and would make renewals for an additional period of 5 to 10 years. The bill would revise the criteria regarding academic performance for charter schools in operation for 4 years. The bill would authorize the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the state board to develop, in lieu of the academic performance criteria, alternative criteria that will align with metrics of pupil performance that recognize individual pupil progress or any other measures of academic performance developed and implemented as specified. The bill would require the Superintendent, by October 1 of each year, to identify any charter school that has not met the renewal criteria, as specified, and notify each identified school of the expiration date of its charter and that the school has not met the initial criteria for renewal. The bill would prohibit a chartering authority from renewing the charter of a school so identified if the charter will expire within one year of the identification, unless the chartering authority receives authorization from the state board according to a specified procedure in which the charter school would be authorized to request the state board to grant authorization to the chartering authority. (2) The Charter Schools Act of 1992 allows a charter school to submit a renewal application to the county board of education if the application has been denied by the school district governing board or to the State Board of Education if the application has been denied by the county board of education, as specified. This bill would delete that provision and instead make the appeal process for charter revocations applicable to denials of renewal applications by chartering authorities and the failure of chartering authorities to act on a renewal application within specified timelines.