Adopted March 2003 – Reviewed and deemed relevant May 2021 – Education Commission
California State PTA believes charter schools have a valid place in our public school system, because they can provide K-12 students and parents with expanded choices in educational opportunities and may serve as laboratories for programs that can be replicated in other public schools. Public charter schools are most successful when proposed, developed and evaluated in the communities they serve. PTA recognizes that sufficient resources, including facilities, must be provided to charter school students, and to the chartering entity responsible for oversight of charter school performance.
PTA further believes that charter schools must not be operated by for-profit organizations, nor be affiliated with a nonpublic, religious, or home-based school.
PTA believes a charter school must:
- Be located within the same jurisdiction as its chartering district or county office of education.
- Provide a healthy and safe learning environment for all children.
- Not discriminate against any pupil on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, gender, ability or disability, sexual orientation, language or socio-economic status, or immigration status.
- Be publicly funded in a manner that is equitable to and does not reduce resources, on a per pupil basis, for other public schools in the chartering entity.
- Be held fiscally and academically accountable to the parents and community by the local chartering entity.
- Be subject to the same conflict of interest laws that bind other public school.
- Be located in facilities that meet state school building code standards and be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
- Provide a curriculum that is aligned to the California state academic content standards and offers at least the number of instructional minutes as required by the California State Education Code, and require students to meet the state’s minimum requirements for graduation.
- Follow all state and federal assessment and reporting requirements and be held to or exceed the same standards of academic accountability as all other public schools.
- Belong to a Special Education Local Planning Area (SELPA) for special education funding purposes and provide special needs students with all services as set forth in their Individual Education Plan (IEP) and 504 accommodations.
- Hire teachers and administrators who meet the same credentialing requirements as those in other California public schools.
- Encourage effective teacher preparation and ongoing professional development.
- Involve parents in meaningful decision-making.
- Maintain current student records, make student records available for inspection by parents and the chartering entity, ensure records follow a student who withdraws or is expelled from a charter school, and notify the chartering entity when a student leaves the charter school for any reason.
