About Assembly Bill 1994 (Reyes) - Charter Schools

November 2002
AB 1994 (Reyes), passed in 2002, tightens the charter-approval process and curtails the freedom of charter schools to serve any grade and locate anywhere in the state.

Under AB 1994, new charter schools must serve pupils in the same grade level served by the district considering the petitions. (For example, a charter school for high school students cannot locate in an elementary district unless it also serves elementary students.) In addition, a proposed charter school intending to serve high school pupils may have its petition denied if it does not describe how its courses would transfer to other public high schools and meet college-entrance requirements. A petition could also be denied if it does not adequately describe the procedures to be used if the school closes, such as a final audit and a plan for disposing assets and transferring pupil records.

In addition, petitioners must identify a single charter school that will operate within the geographic boundaries of the chartering district and state where the facilities will be located. Multiple sites within the district are allowed as long as they are identified in the petition. Furthermore, existing charters wishing to establish multiple sites within the district must have their charters revised; and the additional sites must be approved at a local school board meeting. Charters can establish one additional site outside district boundaries but within county boundaries only if no site is available within the original site’s district or the additional site is needed for temporary use during a construction project. The charter school must first notify the district in which the additional site would be located, the county office of education, and the state.

AB 1994 also changes the route to charter approval. Petitioners are steered first to the district in which the school would be located. If the district denies the charter, petitioners no longer have the option of going either to the county board or the State Board of Education (SBE). The next step would be the county board, and only if the county board refused could the petitioner seek approval from the SBE.

Applying directly to a county board of education (COE) or the SBE, without first applying to a district, is allowed; but restrictions have been put in place. The law still allows petitioners to go directly to the county board of education if the pupils served would otherwise be served by the county office of education, and now gives county boards authority to grant charters to schools that provide services not generally provided by a COE. However, regular public schools are not allowed to apply to county boards to convert to charter school status.

Charter schools with multiple sites are also allowed under AB 1994. However, the law only lets the charter school, and any related sites, operate within the county boundaries. Moreover, a county board would have to find that the proposed school would serve pupils better than a school confined to one district’s boundaries would. Proposed countywide charters would have to meet requirements very similar to those imposed on other charter petitioners—for example, the number of petition signatures, teachers’ qualifications, and notification of the district in which the school is intended to be located.

If petitioners want to operate multiple sites throughout the state, they must seek approval of the SBE. The law allows the SBE to approve such a charter only if the school would provide a statewide benefit that a school in one district or county could not provide.

AB 1994 makes other geographic restrictions. Charter schools that are new (or facilities that are new to an existing charter) as of July 1, 2002 are required to be within the boundaries of their chartering district. A school that is granted a charter by the SBE after being denied by a district or county board must locate within the boundaries of the entity that initially denied the charter. A charter school may set up auxiliary facilities in neighboring counties as long as the facilities only support nonclassroom-based independent study and the school’s main operations and its students are in the county in which the charter was granted. Virtually all charter schools must meet these geographical restrictions by June 30, 2005. Only charter schools partnering with specified federal youth development programs, the California Conservation Corps, or juvenile court schools will be exempt.

In addition, AB 1994 requires the SBE to assign one charter number to an approved petition that identifies a charter school that will conform to the law’s new geographic restrictions.

The law also gives COEs more authority to oversee charter schools. It requires a successful charter petitioner to notify the local COE of the charter approval and to report the school’s location before it opens. In addition, COEs, without liability for financial improprieties, may now investigate written complaints by parents; and charter schools are now required to “promptly respond” to all “reasonable inquiries” about their operations, including financial records. Finally, COEs now receive copies of their charter schools’ annual independent audits. Such audits must also be sent to the state controller. (Charter schools were already required to respond to inquiries from, and submit copies of their audits to, their chartering authorities and the CDE.)

AB 1994 also requires a charter school in its first year of operation to open between July 1 and September 30.

For the full text of AB 1994, go to: www.leginfo.ca.gov, click on Bill Information, and search for bill number 1994 under the year 2001-02.