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CCAP and Santa Clara County Office of Education Awarded State Grant to Support Authorizers

CCAP has received one of two technical assistance grants from the California Department of Education (CDE) to expand professional development and networking opportunities for school districts and county offices of education that authorize charter schools. CCAP  and the other grant recipient, the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE), will be working closely together to create and implement a joint action plan to be approved by CDE.

The joint effort, which has been designated as the Charter Authorizer Support Initiative (CASI), will engage expert partners to collaborate in training workshops and support outreach and networking activities. For example, the Small School Districts’ Association (SSDA) is a key thought partner and will participate in building a network expressly for the state’s small school districts, and FCMAT, the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, will collaborate in the development of workshops on financial management. A key feature of CASI will be developing a network of regional hubs for training and networking, led by the county offices of education (COE) engaging authorizers in their own and in nearby counties. Currently, the participating COEs include:

  • Contra Costa COE
  • El Dorado COE
  • Los Angeles COE
  • Mono COE
  • Riverside COE
  • Shasta COE
  • Sutter COE

SCCOE has a great deal of experience sharing resources and best practices with the three dozen school districts and charter organizations in the county and was part of the group of authorizers from across the state that collaborated on the authorizer toolkits that CCAP has published with WestEd, and other tools that are being developed.

Through this network of partnerships, we will be able to tailor professional development and training programs to meet the specific needs of authorizers based on size, location, staff experience, and expertise by using a variety of strategies, including regional in-person, “hybrid,” and online meetings, modular boot camps, and programming held in conjunction with CCAP’s annual conference.

There will be an online informational kick-off meeting for county offices of education and school districts that are interested in learning more about CASI and connecting with other authorizers.

An invitation with a link to register will come directly from CDE, but please save the date:

Monday, February 28, 2022, from 9:00 to 10:00 am, with optional Q & A until 10:30 am

CCAP Executive Director Tom Hutton says the grant presents a significant opportunity for outreach to authorizers in all regions of the state to advance authorizing excellence and give all students the education they need and deserve: “CCAP is grateful to the charter schools division of CDE for its recognition of the importance of authorizer supports, and we’re very excited to partner with SCCOE and to work with the other collaborators to take the effort to support high-quality authorizing to a new level.”

 

 

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