More guidance is in the works for authorizers on the changes that Assembly Bill 1505 made to California’s charter school system. At the November meeting of the State Board of Education (SBE), the California Department of Education (CDE) provided an update on the implementation of AB 1505, including the development of new proposed regulations that could provide some more guidance on details in AB 1505 that are not fully explained in the legislation
The CDE already has conducted stakeholder engagement to solicit input on proposed regulations, in which CCAP participated. The Department anticipates presenting a regulatory package to the SBE at its January 13-14, 2021 meeting. At this point, it is unclear what specific regulatory language the CDE will propose to the SBE.
Over the past several months, authorizers have been working to revise their charter school policies and procedures to address AB 1505’s provisions. This experience has raised many questions about the practical implementation of some of the changes the legislation made to the state Charter Schools Act of 1992. While regulations may help to clarify and interpret how to implement these changes, some regulations may restrict an authorizer’s exercise of discretion and have unintended consequences. In some cases, the absence of regulations actually affords authorizers more discretion in shaping policies and procedures to implement AB 1505.
For example, AB 1505 provides that an authorizer may grant a high-performing charter school a five-, six-, or seven-year renewal term, but the Legislature did not include specific criteria for when a five-year renewal term, as opposed to a longer one, is appropriate. As it’s currently written, authorizers have the discretion to determine the renewal term for a high-performing charter school. A detailed regulation on this point could strip authorizers of this discretion.
AB 1505 also requires that if an authorizer’s denial of a petition is appealed, and the petition on appeal is found to contain different “material terms” than the petition as denied, it must be “remanded,” or returned back to the authorizer that denied it. For example, the county board must immediately remand the petition to the district governing board for reconsideration if the petition as submitted to the county board contains new or significantly different terms than it did when the district board rejected it. The district governing board must then grant or deny the petition within 30 days. However, the Act is silent as to the specific procedures for triggering this 30-day timeline, and a regulation might clarify when the 30-day timeline begins for the district governing board to grant or deny the remanded petition.
Another question that authorizers have raised is when to consider two new bases to deny an existing charter school’s petition for certain material revisions to its original charter. AB 1505 now provides that an authorizer may consider the community interest or fiscal impact of a proposed “expansion” that constitutes a material revision. But the statute does not clearly define what constitutes such an “expansion.” A regulation might provide such clarification.
It is unlikely that the SBE regulations will cover all of the questions raised regarding the implementation of AB 1505. Therefore, whatever happens with the regulations, authorizers will need to think about how to address the questions raised by AB 1505’s amendments to the Act.
Request for Input from Authorizers and Other Stakeholders
CCAP recently convened authorizers to discuss your priorities for areas where additional regulatory guidance would be helpful, what those provisions might say, and any thoughts you had regarding areas in which you may prefer not to see additional regulations. The proposed draft regulations are expected to be presented to the SBE at its January meeting and, if approved, would then go to the 45-day public comment period.
CCAP intends to submit comments and encourages you to contribute additional thoughts or questions now and/or after the draft regulations are published. Please reach out to Executive Director Tom Hutton at tom.hutton@calauthorizers.org. CCAP welcomes input from all authorizers and from other stakeholders and, as always, is especially interested in input from smaller authorizers.
