CA SB 1380

Title: Charter schools: establishment.
Author: Bill M. Dodd

Summary
SB 1380, as introduced, Dodd. Charter schools: establishment. (1) The Charter Schools Act of 1992 authorizes the establishment and operation of charter schools. Existing law generally requires a petition to establish a charter school to be submitted to the governing board of a school district.Existing law prohibits the governing board of a school district from denying a petition to establish a charter school unless it makes written factual findings in support of one or more specific findings including, among others, a finding that the school district is not positioned to absorb the fiscal impact of the proposed charter school. Existing law identifies specific conditions that subject a proposed charter school to a rebuttable presumption of denial for this reason, including, among others, the school district being under state receivership.Existing law authorizes a school district to request emergency apportionment, subject to requirements and repayment provisions including the appointment of a trustee, if the school district determines that the school district’s revenues are less than the amount necessary to meet the school district’s current year expenditure obligations.This bill would eliminate being “under state receivership” as a basis for a school district to show it is not positioned to absorb the fiscal impact of a proposed charter school, and would instead specify that a school district may demonstrate that the school district is not positioned to absorb that fiscal impact if, among other conditions, the school district has (A) received an emergency apportionment as described above and: (i) the school district has an outstanding balance of its emergency loan and has not met the conditions to terminate the trustee’s appointment; or (ii) during the first five fiscal years after fully repaying an emergency apportionment and having the appointment of a trustee terminated, the school district’s enrollment has declined, as specified; or (B) the school district has, within the immediately preceding five fiscal years, adopted necessary budgetary solutions to maintain or improve the school district’s fiscal solvency. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on school districts and county offices of education relating to charter petitions, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.(2) Existing law authorizes a charter school petitioner, if the governing board of a school district denies a petition, to submit the petition for the establishment of a charter school to the county board of education on appeal. Separately, existing law authorizes a county board of education to approve a petition for the operation of a countywide charter school, a charter school that operates at one or more sites within the geographic boundaries of the county and that provides instructional services that are not generally provided by a county office of education, only if it finds, in addition to other requirements, that the educational services to be provided by the charter school will offer services to a pupil population that will benefit from those services and that cannot be served as well by a charter school that operates in only one school district in the county.This bill would, if the governing board of a school district denies a petition, prohibit any person from submitting a substantially similar petition to the county board of education as a countywide charter school and would require a county office of education to deny any petition that it finds to be substantially similar to a petition that has been submitted to and denied by the governing board of the school district in which the charter school proposes to operate, locate, or place its facilities.(3) Existing law requires, at the public hearing at which the county board of education will either grant or deny the charter, the charter school petitioners to have equivalent time and procedures to present evidence and testimony to respond to the county office of education

Status
April 29 hearing: Placed on APPR suspense file.

Bill Documents
CA SB 1380 - 02/16/24 - Introduced
02/16/24 - CA SB 1380 (02/16/24 - Introduced)