MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2013 Regular Session
To: Education
By: Representative Dixon
AN ACT TO CREATE A CHARTER SCHOOL PILOT PROGRAM FOR GIRLS IN GRADES 3 THROUGH 12; TO AUTHORIZE CHARTER SCHOOLS TO BE FORMED IN "D" OR "F" SCHOOL DISTRICTS SELECTED BY THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION BY CREATING A NEW SCHOOL OR BY CONVERSION OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TO CHARTER STATUS; TO PRESCRIBE CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS; TO ESTABLISH ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND POWERS AND DUTIES OF CHARTER SCHOOLS; TO SPECIFY THE TERMS REQUIRED FOR A SCHOOL'S CHARTER; TO ESTABLISH THE PROCESS FOR APPLYING FOR CHARTER SCHOOL STATUS; TO REQUIRE THE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL OF CHARTERS; TO PROVIDE THAT CHARTER SCHOOLS ARE EXEMPT FROM ALL EDUCATION STATUTES, UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE, AND RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION OR THE LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT; TO PROVIDE FOR THE EMPLOYMENT OF TEACHERS AND SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS BY CHARTER SCHOOLS; TO PROHIBIT UNLAWFUL REPRISALS AGAINST SCHOOL DISTRICT EMPLOYEES WHO ARE INVOLVED IN AN APPLICATION FOR CHARTER SCHOOL STATUS; TO PROVIDE FOR STATE AND LOCAL FUNDING OF CHARTER SCHOOLS; TO AUTHORIZE THE SCHOOL DISTRICT TO LEASE SPACE TO CHARTER SCHOOLS; TO REQUIRE CHARTER SCHOOLS TO HAVE A TRANSPORTATION PLAN; TO REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO SEEK FUNDING FROM VARIOUS SOURCES TO ENHANCE THE CHARTER SCHOOL PILOT PROGRAM; TO PROVIDE FOR THE ELECTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF A CHARTER SCHOOL; TO PROHIBIT CHARTER SCHOOLS FROM LEVYING TAXES OR ISSUING BONDS SECURED BY TAX REVENUES; TO REQUIRE ALL APPLICATIONS FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION BEFORE DECEMBER 1 IN THE SCHOOL YEAR PRECEDING THE FIRST SCHOOL YEAR THE CHARTER SCHOOL INTENDS TO OPEN; TO REQUIRE THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO SUBMIT AN EVALUATION OF THE CHARTER SCHOOLS TO THE LEGISLATURE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. The Legislature declares that the following are the purposes of this act:
(a) To provide increased opportunities for students to learn in an educational environment that best meets their needs;
(b) To provide new forms of accountability for schools;
(c) To encourage increased involvement of parents and teachers in the operation and decision making of a public school; and
(d) To encourage innovative and effective teaching methods.
SECTION 2. For purposes of this act, the following words and phrases have the meanings ascribed in this section unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(a) "Charter school" means a school in a school district selected by the State Board of Education that is operating under the terms of a charter granted by the board.
(b) "Conversion school" means an existing public school in a selected school district that has been converted to charter school status by the State Board of Education.
(c) "School district" or "district" means a school district with an accountability rating of "D" or "F" selected by the State Board of Education in which a charter school is situated.
(d) "Board" means the State Board of Education, which shall serve as the governing body for charter schools created under this act.
SECTION 3. (1) A charter school may be formed as a pilot program in any school district selected by the State Board of Education in one (1) of the following manners:
(a) By the approval of an application for a new charter school made by any person, group of persons, organization or public institution; or
(b) By the conversion of an existing school to charter status, which may be accomplished by the board converting the school on its own motion or the approval of a petition to convert.
(2) The organizers of a proposed charter school under subsection (1)(a) of this section may apply to, and the school may be sponsored by, the State Board of Education.
(3) The school board shall adopt a policy detailing the process by which a conversion under subsection (1)(b) of this section may occur. The process of conversion may be initiated by parents at an existing school who petition the school district in accordance with the district's conversion policy, or may be initiated by the district on its own motion. A petition may not be approved unless a majority of the parents of students enrolled in the school who are present at the meeting called for the specific purpose of deciding whether or not to convert vote in favor of the conversion. The process of conversion also may be initiated by the filing of a petition signed by no less than one thousand five hundred (1,500) citizens of the school district with the board.
SECTION 4. In order for a school to be granted charter status and to maintain charter status, the school must satisfy the following requirements:
(a) The school must be established for education compulsory-school-aged female students in Grades 3 through 12;
(b) The school may not charge tuition;
(c) The school may not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, national origin, income level, disabling condition or athletic ability;
(d) The school must meet all applicable health, safety and civil rights requirements;
(e) The school must be subject to financial audits in the same manner as public school districts;
(f) The school must be nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies and employment practices;
(g) The school must be accountable to the chartering authority for its performance as required under this act;
(h) The school must issue annual reports to parents and the sponsor and must make the reports available to the public. These reports must include a financial statement, a description of the school's progress in reaching academic goals and a measure of parental satisfaction. The school shall submit a copy of the annual report to the State Department of Education; and
(i) The school must establish high academic goals and standards.
SECTION 5. (1) A charter school sponsored by the school district must be open to admission to all female students residing in that district in Grades 3 through 12. However, if the school is a conversion school, an enrollment preference may be given to those female students who reside within the former attendance area of that school. Female students from outside the school district may be admitted if the charter school agree to and establish in the school's charter a procedure for the enrollment and admission of those students. If a student from outside the school district enrolls in the charter school, the school district from which the student comes must submit an amount equal to that student's pro rata share of the school district's local funds to the charter school.
(2) The school district may not assign students to a charter school. However, the school district may develop criteria based on academic performance standards for acceptance of students at a charter school.
(3) A charter school is subject to any desegregation court orders in effect in the school district.
(4) A charter school must enroll an eligible student who submits a timely application for enrollment and meets any academic performance criteria established by the district, unless the number of applications for enrollment in a program, class, grade level or school building exceeds the number of applications the school is prepared to accept in that program, class, grade level or school building. If an excess number of applications are received by the charter school, all applicants must have an equal chance of being admitted by using a lottery.
SECTION 6. (1) A charter school, unless it is a conversion school, must organize as a nonprofit corporation and must pursue, with due diligence, tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
(2) A charter school may sue and be sued.
(3) A charter school may borrow funds and invest funds. Funds received and earnings from investments on gifts from nongovernmental entities may be accounted for separately. If a charter school closes, all unspent government funds other than state funds, unspent earnings from those funds and assets purchased with government funds will revert to the school board. If a charter school has received any funds under the Mississippi Adequate Education Program or any other state appropriated education funds, those unspent funds shall be remitted back to the State of Mississippi's General Fund to be used only for educational purposes. Unspent funds from nongovernmental sources, unspent earnings from those funds, assets purchased with those funds and debts of the school (unless otherwise provided for in the charter or debt instrument) shall revert to the nonprofit entity created to operate the school and may be disposed of according to applicable laws for nonprofit corporations. If a conversion school reverts to noncharter status, then all assets will revert to the school board. A governmental entity shall not be liable for any debt of the charter school unless that entity explicitly authorized the debt and agreed to be liable for nonpayment of the debt. A sponsor's approval of a charter school budget that includes debt does not constitute the sponsor's liability for that debt.
SECTION 7. (1) The term of a charter shall be five (5) school years.
(2) The charter must include the following:
(a) Assurances that:
(i) The school will not charge tuition or other fees except in those instances when tuition or fees are allowed by law to be charged by public school districts;
(ii) The school will comply with federal, state and local rules, regulations and statutes relating to safety, civil rights and insurance. The State Department of Education shall publish a list of relevant rules, regulations and statutes to notify charter schools of their responsibilities under this subparagraph;
(iii) The school will be nonsectarian in programs, admission policies and employment practices;
(iv) The school will comply with the same audit requirements as public school districts and will cooperate fully in audits conducted under the direction of the State Auditor; and
(v) The school will comply with all federal and state laws relating to the education of children with disabilities;
(b) A description of the governing body that is responsible for the policy and operational decisions of the charter school, including the names of that body's members;
(c) A description of the objective method or methods that will be used to measure student progress. The method or methods must include the Mississippi Curriculum Test;
(d) A description of the school's plan for the transportation of students;
(e) A description of the school's plan for handling disruptive students. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the school board may refuse to admit any student who is suspended or expelled from a charter school due to actions that would lead to suspension or expulsion from a school in the district until the period of suspension or expulsion has expired;
(f) A description of the school's plan to provide reasonable public notice of the existence, nature and application requirements of the charter school. This notice must include at least one (1) informational meeting to which the public is invited. The school district shall provide reasonable assistance, if requested by the charter school, in providing that notice in the district. However, the actual expenses incurred by the district in providing the requested assistance must be paid by the charter school;
(g) A description of the administrative or other services, if any, that the district will provide for the charter school;
(h) A description of the method that will be used to compute per-pupil funding for the school;
(i) A description of the types and amount of insurance coverage, including bonding insurance for the principal officers of the school, to be obtained by the charter school;
(j) Any other matters required by this act to be included in a charter; and
(k) Any other matters that the sponsor and charter school agree to include. Failure to agree on the additional matters shall not constitute grounds for rejection of a charter application.
(3) The charter must include the following attachments:
(a) A description of the program of instruction. A charter school must provide a comprehensive program of instruction for each complete grade level of Grade 3 through Grade 12. A school may offer this program of instruction with an emphasis on a specific learning philosophy, style or certain subject area. A school may offer multiple learning and teaching styles in order to achieve academic improvement. A school may add grade levels during any year of the charter, if notice of the additional grade levels is submitted to the sponsor of the charter school at least six (6) months before the beginning of the school year in which those grade levels will be offered; and
(b) A budget encompassing all items necessary for operating the school, based on one or more projections of the number of students the school anticipates serving in the year for which the budget is prepared.
(4) Provisions of the charter may be amended at any time by agreement between the charter school and the sponsor that approved the charter. The attachments must be submitted to the sponsor by the school on an annual basis and may not be revised by the sponsor unless the information in the submissions indicates a violation of the charter, this act or any other law.
SECTION 8. (1) An application for a charter consists of a proposed charter and all attachments required under Section 7 of this act.
(2) The State Board of Education must respond to the application within forty-five (45) days after receiving the application. The response may be in the form of approval of the application as submitted, rejection, or approval of the application subject to negotiation of details, which negotiation must be conducted in good faith.
(3) An application for a charter must be approved unless:
(a) The application does not contain all items required by this act;
(b) One or more of the application's provisions are not in compliance with applicable law; or
(c) The sponsor determines that the applicants are incompetent to carry out one or more of the plans described in the application, in which case the incompetence must be documented by the State Board of Education.
(4) If an application for a charter is rejected, the board must provide written notice to the applicant of the basis for the rejection.
(5) The rejection of an application by the State Board of Education or by the school district does not bar resubmission of the same application with proper modifications. The State Board of Education must provide technical assistance to an applicant whose application has been rejected.
SECTION 9. (1) Before January 1 during the charter school's fifth year of operation, the sponsor of the school must renew the agreement, with any modifications that are the product of a good faith negotiation, for an additional five (5) years if the following conditions have been met:
(a) The school substantially has met the requirements for student performance stated in the agreement; and
(b) The school substantially has complied with other provisions of the charter.
(2) A charter issued under this act may be revoked by the sponsor, and the charter school must be closed, if the sponsor determines that one or more of the following have occurred:
(a) Repeated or substantial failure of the charter school to maintain applicable safety standards;
(b) Substantial failure of the charter school to meet auditing or other financial standards as required under this act;
(c) Blatant and recurrent violations of provisions of the charter; or
(d) The existence of one or more grounds for revocation as specified in the charter.
(3) If a charter is revoked, the charter school must remain open until the end of the school year in which the revocation takes effect, unless the State Department of Education determines that an extreme emergency situation that jeopardizes the safety and security of the students of the school exists, in which case, the department must assume all administrative responsibilities in the school until the end of the school year.
(4) The revocation or nonrenewal of a charter must be accompanied by a list of specific reasons for the action. The charter school may seek judicial review of the decision to revoke or not to renew a charter.
SECTION 10. (1) Except as otherwise provided under subsection (2) of this section, all schools chartered under this act are exempt from those statutes applicable to the public schools and the rules, regulations, policies and procedures of the State Board of Education and the school district. However, a charter school may elect to voluntarily comply with any statutes applicable to public schools in the state. A charter school must comply with general health and safety standards.
(2) Charter schools are not exempt from the following statutes:
(a) Section 37-9-75, which relates to teacher strikes;
(b) Section 37-11-20, which prohibits acts of intimidation intended to keep a student from attending school;
(c) Section 37-11-21, which prohibits parental abuse of school staff;
(d) Section 37-11-23, which prohibits the willful disruption of school and school meetings;
(e) Sections 37-11-29 and 37-11-31, which relate to reporting requirements regarding unlawful or violent acts on school property; and
(f) Section 37-19-53, which prohibits false reporting of student counts by school officials.
SECTION 11. (1) The school district may not assign teachers employed by the district to a charter school. A charter school may hire the teachers to be employed by the school and negotiate contracts and all such teachers employed by the charter school shall be highly qualified as defined under "No Child Left Behind." All substitutes teachers must have a minimum of a high school diploma in order to be eligible for employment in a charter school.
(2) The qualifications of the teachers in a charter school must be disclosed to the students' parents before the beginning of the school year.
(3) The instructional staff of the charter school will be deemed employees of the school district for purposes of providing certain state-funded employee benefits, including membership in the Public Employees' Retirement System and the State and School Employees Life and Health Insurance Plan. Charter schools are public schools, and the employees of charter schools are public school employees. Employees of a charter school that elects to become a participating employer under the Public Employees' Retirement System are teachers for the purpose of membership in the Public Employees' Retirement System. Charter schools may pay all or part of a teacher's health insurance premiums, including family coverage, as part of the teacher's compensation package.
SECTION 12. (1) The school district, a school district employee or any other person who has control over personnel actions may not take unlawful reprisal against an employee of the school district because the employee is directly or indirectly involved in an application to establish a charter school. A school district employee may not take unlawful reprisal against an educational program of the school or the school district because an application to establish a charter school proposes the conversion of all or a portion of the educational program to a charter school.
(2) As used in this section, the term "unlawful reprisal" means:
(a) With respect to any school district employee who is a parent or concerned citizen, an action that is taken by another school district employee as a direct result of a lawful application to establish a charter school and which is adverse to the employee and results in one or more of the following for the employee:
(i) Disciplinary or corrective action;
(ii) Detail, transfer or reassignment;
(iii) Suspension, demotion or dismissal;
(iv) An unfavorable performance evaluation;
(v) A reduction in pay, benefits or awards;
(vi) Elimination of the employee's position without a reduction in force by reason of lack of monies or work; or
(vii) Other significant changes in duties or responsibilities which are inconsistent with the employee's salary or employment classification; and
(b) With respect to an educational program, an action that is taken by a school district employee as a direct result of a lawful application to establish a charter school and that is adverse to the educational program and results in one or more of the following:
(i) Suspension or termination of the program;
(ii) Transfer or reassignment of the program to a less favorable department;
(iii) Relocation of the program to a less favorable site within the school or school district; or
(iv) Significant reduction or termination of funding for the program.
SECTION 13. (1) A charter school's funding must be based on the number of students enrolled in and in attendance at the school.
(2) A charter school student shall be included in the average daily attendance reports of the student's home district. The State Board of Education shall define the means by which a charter school must verify the residency and attendance of a student at the school.
(3) State funding for a charter school student, including transportation funds, shall be distributed to the student's home district as if the student was attending any other public school in that district.
(4) A charter school chartered by the State Board of Education shall request state, local and federal funds from the home school district of each student attending the school. Local and state per-pupil funding shall be equal to the local and state portion of the per-pupil expenditures in the student's home district two (2) school years preceding the school year being funded. Federal funds shall be distributed as dictated by federal law. The charter school also shall send a copy of each request for funding to the State Department of Education.
(6) The school district must remit requested funds in a timely fashion, as defined by the State Board of Education. When contributions are not forwarded in a timely manner, the state shall assess a ten percent (10%) penalty payable to the charter school for failure to forward the contribution.
(7) For a new charter school, pre-enrollment or other reasonable information shall be the basis for initial funding. The State Board of Education shall define the types of information that may be used for this purpose, as well as methods of correcting any discrepancies between the original estimates on which funding is based and the actual average daily attendance.
(8) The charter school may receive gifts and grants from any public or private source.
SECTION 14. (1) The school district may lease space or sell services to a charter school. The school district must make unused buildings available to a charter school and must bargain in good faith over the terms of the lease.
(2) A charter school may lease space or secure services from another public body, nonprofit organization or private organization or individual.
(3) A sponsor may issue a charter to a charter school applicant before the applicant has secured space, equipment and personnel if the applicant indicates authorization is necessary for the school to raise working capital.
SECTION 15. The State Board of Education shall seek grants, fellowships and scholarships that may be used to enhance the charter school pilot program.
SECTION 16. (1) The initial board of directors of the charter school must be designated by the applicants who have been granted the charter. This initial board shall govern the school's first year of operation.
(2) Not less than six (6) months before the beginning of the charter school's second school year, the school shall hold an election for members of the school's board of directors. The term of office for this board shall be set according to the charter.
(3) Administrative and instructional personnel of the charter school and all parents of children enrolled in the school are eligible to participate in any election of members of the board of directors.
(4) Meetings of the charter school's board of directors will be subject to Sections 25-41-1 through 25-41-17 governing open meetings.
SECTION 17. A charter school may not levy taxes or issue bonds secured by tax revenues.
SECTION 18. All applications for charter schools must be submitted to the State Department of Education before December 1 in the school year preceding the first school year the charter school intends to open.
SECTION 19. The State Department of Education shall provide to the Legislature an evaluation of the charter schools created under this act. The evaluation must be presented before the beginning of the 2018 Regular Session.
SECTION 20. Sections 1 through 20 of this act shall stand repealed from and after July 1, 2018.
SECTION 21. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.