Bill > H3928

This bill, titled "To Allow Fair Access to Public Charter Schools," proposes to amend existing state law to allow the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to approve up to 12 additional commonwealth charters (public charter schools) or amendments to increase enrollment in existing ones each year, with the total statewide enrollment increase capped at 1% of the total public school enrollment annually. Importantly, these new approvals would be exempt from certain existing limits related to the number of charter schools, their enrollment capacity, and the percentage of local school district spending allocated to them. If more than 12 qualified applications are received in a year, priority will be given to schools in districts with lower student performance on statewide assessments and higher demonstrated parent demand for more school options. All new charter schools and enrollment expansions approved under this bill would still need to meet rigorous approval standards, adhere to recruitment, retention, and multilingual outreach requirements, and undergo annual performance reviews, and the bill would take effect on January 1, 2017.