1 STATE OF OKLAHOMA
2 1st Session of the 59th Legislature (2023)
3 HOUSE BILL 2414 By: Johns
4
5
6 AS INTRODUCED
7 An Act relating to schools; amending 70 O.S. 2021,
Sections 3-135, 3-136, 3-137, and 3-142, which relate
8 to the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act; requiring
charter school to provide certain notice to sponsor;
9 directing sponsor to use performance framework for
charter school evaluation; authorizing development of
10 certain separate framework; adding minimum
requirements for framework; mandating annual
11 evaluation; directing presentation of results to
certain governing boards; defining term; subjecting
12 charter school to certain spending limitations;
prohibiting charter school from providing instruction
13 to certain students; directing charter school
governing board to comply with certain acts;
14 subjecting charter school sponsor governing board to
certain conflict of interest requirements; modifying
15 procedures for charter school contracts; requiring
sponsor to develop a corrective action plan;
16 authorizing nonrenewal of contract in certain cases;
specifying how sponsor fee should be used; requiring
17 sponsor to publish certain report on its website;
amending 70 O.S. 2021, Section 3-145.3, which relates
18 to duties of the Statewide Virtual Charter School
Board; requiring compliance with the Oklahoma Charter
19 Schools Act; modifying limitation on fee for
administrative expenses and support; subjecting
20 certain charter schools to the same purchasing
procedures and compliance requirements as school
21 districts; prohibiting commingling of certain school
funds; modifying instruction and continuing education
22 obligations for certain governing board members;
establishing requirements for governing boards which
23 contract with educational management organizations;
prescribing duties for board membership; requiring
24 State Department of Education and sponsor to publish
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1 certain contracts on their websites; directing
Department to publish list of fees paid; subjecting
2 certain board members to instruction and continuing
education requirements; prohibiting certain conflicts
3 of interest and pecuniary gain; disallowing certain
appointments or selections of members; requiring
4 sponsor board members to complete instruction and
continuing education requirements; specifying entity
5 to pay for instruction and continuing education;
prescribing requirements for instruction and
6 continuing education; defining term; designating
certain funds as public funds; prohibiting transfer
7 or conversion of state funds to private funds;
clarifying provision; requiring payments from charter
8 schools to comply with certain provisions; directing
organization to provide certain documents; subjecting
9 certain funds to audit, transparency, oversight and
financial reporting; requiring certain funds to
10 remain public funds; prescribing grade for
participation in certain extracurricular or
11 educational activities; declaring certain property to
remain public property of the charter school;
12 mandating an operating agreement review of certain
charter schools; establishing procedures for review;
13 requiring written agreement for certain expenditures;
mandating criminal history record checks for certain
14 personnel; prescribing process and payment of checks;
prohibiting certain activities by educational
15 management organizations; amending 70 O.S. 2021,
Section 5-200, which relates to educational
16 management organizations; requiring amounts paid to
certain organizations be pursuant to contract terms;
17 mandating disclosure pursuant to certain guidelines;
amending 70 O.S. 2021, Section 18-124, which relates
18 to limitations on administrative services
expenditures; providing applicability of limitation
19 to certain charter schools; clarifying calculation
for specified schools; modifying definition;
20 providing for codification; providing an effective
date; and declaring an emergency.
21
22
23
24 BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA:
Req. No. 6166 Page 2
1 SECTION 1. AMENDATORY 70 O.S. 2021, Section 3-135, is
2 amended to read as follows:
3 Section 3-135. A. The sponsor of a charter school shall enter
4 into a written contract with the governing body board of the charter
5 school. The contract shall incorporate the provisions of the
6 charter of the charter school and contain, but shall not be limited
7 to, the following provisions:
8 1. A description of the program to be offered by the school
9 which complies with the purposes outlined in Section 3-136 of this
10 title;
11 2. Admission policies and procedures;
12 3. Management and administration of the charter school,
13 including that a majority of the charter governing board members are
14 residents of the State of Oklahoma and meet no less than quarterly
15 in a public meeting within the boundaries of the school district in
16 which the charter school is located or within the State of Oklahoma
17 in the instance of multiple charter school locations by the same
18 sponsor;
19 4. Requirements and procedures for program and financial
20 audits;
21 5. A description of how the charter school will comply with the
22 charter requirements set forth in the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act;
23 6. Assumption of liability by the charter school;
24 7. The term of the contract;
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1 8. A description of the high standards of expectation and rigor
2 for charter school plans and assurance that charter school plans
3 adopted meet at least those standards;
4 9. Policies that require that the charter school be as equally
5 free and open to all students as traditional public schools;
6 10. Procedures that require students enrolled in the charter
7 school to be selected by lottery to ensure fairness if more students
8 apply than a school has the capacity to accommodate;
9 11. Policies that require the charter school to be subject to
10 the same academic standards and expectations as existing public
11 schools; and
12 12. A description of the requirements and procedures for the
13 charter school to receive funding in accordance with statutory
14 requirements and guidelines for existing public schools; and
15 13. A requirement to promptly notify the sponsor in the
16 instance of any significant adverse actions, material findings of
17 noncompliance, or pending actions, claims, or proceedings in this
18 state relating to the charter school or an educational management
19 organization with which the charter school has a contract.
20 B. A charter school shall not enter into an employment contract
21 with any teacher or other personnel until the charter school has a
22 contract with a sponsoring school district. The employment contract
23 shall set forth the personnel policies of the charter school,
24 including, but not limited to, policies related to certification,
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1 professional development evaluation, suspension, dismissal and
2 nonreemployment, sick leave, personal business leave, emergency
3 leave, and family and medical leave. The contract shall also
4 specifically set forth the salary, hours, fringe benefits, and work
5 conditions. The contract may provide for employer-employee
6 bargaining, but the charter school shall not be required to comply
7 with the provisions of Sections 509.1 through 509.10 of this title.
8 The contract shall conform to all applicable provisions set forth in
9 Section 3-136 of this title.
10 Upon contracting with any teacher or other personnel, the
11 governing body board of the charter school shall, in writing,
12 disclose employment rights of the employees in the event the charter
13 school closes or the charter is not renewed.
14 No charter school may begin serving students without a charter
15 contract executed in accordance with the provisions of the Oklahoma
16 Charter Schools Act and approved in an open meeting of the sponsor.
17 The sponsor may establish reasonable preopening requirements or
18 conditions to monitor the start-up progress of newly approved
19 charter schools and ensure that each school is prepared to open
20 smoothly on the date agreed and to ensure that each school meets all
21 building, health, safety, insurance and other legal requirements for
22 the opening of a school.
23 C. The performance provisions within the charter contract shall
24 be based on a performance framework that clearly sets forth the
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1 academic and operational performance indicators, measures and
2 metrics that will guide the evaluations of the shall be used by
3 charter school sponsors to evaluate their respective charter school
4 by the sponsor schools. The sponsor may develop a separate
5 performance framework to evaluate a charter school that has been
6 designated by the State Department of Education to implement an
7 alternative education program throughout the charter school. The
8 sponsor shall require a charter school to submit the data required
9 in this section in the identical format that is required by the
10 State Department of Education of all public schools in order to
11 avoid duplicative administrative efforts or allow a charter school
12 to provide permission to the Department to share all required data
13 with the sponsor of the charter school. The performance framework
14 shall serve as the minimum requirement for charter school
15 performance evaluation and shall include, but not be limited to, the
16 following indicators, measures and metrics for, at a minimum:
17 1. Student academic proficiency;
18 2. Student academic growth;
19 3. Achievement gaps in both proficiency and growth between
20 major student subgroups;
21 4. Student attendance;
22 5. Recurrent enrollment from year to year as determined by the
23 methodology used for public schools in Oklahoma;
24
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1 6. In the case of high schools, graduation rates as determined
2 by the methodology used for public schools in Oklahoma;
3 7. In the case of high schools, postsecondary readiness;
4 8. Financial performance and sustainability and compliance with
5 state and Internal Revenue Service financial reporting requirements;
6 and
7 9. Audit findings or deficiencies;
8 10. Accreditation and timely reporting; and
9 11. Governing board performance and stewardship, including
10 compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and terms of the
11 charter contract.
12 The sponsor shall annually evaluate its charter schools according to
13 the performance framework. The results of the evaluation shall be
14 presented to the governing board of the charter school and the
15 governing board of the charter school sponsor in an open meeting and
16 posted on the website of the charter school.
17 D. The sponsor shall not request any metric or data from a
18 charter school that it does not produce or publish for all school
19 sites in the district or under its sponsorship, unless the metric or
20 data is unique to a charter school.
21 E. A charter contract may provide for one or more schools by an
22 applicant to the extent approved by the sponsor and consistent with
23 applicable law. An applicant or the governing board of an applicant
24 may hold one or more charter contracts. Each charter school that is
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1 part of a charter contract shall be separate and distinct from any
2 other charter school under the same charter contract. For the
3 purposes of this subsection, "separate and distinct" shall mean a
4 charter school governing board with oversight of more than one
5 charter school shall not combine accounting, budgeting,
6 recordkeeping, admissions, employment or policies and operational
7 decisions of the charter schools it oversees.
8 SECTION 2. AMENDATORY 70 O.S. 2021, Section 3-136, is
9 amended to read as follows:
10 Section 3-136. A. A charter school shall adopt a charter which
11 will ensure compliance with the following:
12 1. A charter school shall comply with all federal regulations
13 and state and local rules and statutes relating to health, safety,
14 civil rights and insurance. By January 1, 2000, the State
15 Department of Education shall prepare a list of relevant rules and
16 statutes which a charter school must comply with as required by this
17 paragraph and shall annually provide an update to the list;
18 2. A charter school shall be nonsectarian in its programs,
19 admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations.
20 A sponsor may not authorize a charter school or program that is
21 affiliated with a nonpublic sectarian school or religious
22 institution;
23 3. The charter school may provide a comprehensive program of
24 instruction for a prekindergarten program, a kindergarten program or
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1 any grade between grades one and twelve. Instruction may be
2 provided to all persons between the ages of four (4) and twenty-one
3 (21) years of age. A charter school may offer a curriculum which
4 emphasizes a specific learning philosophy or style or certain
5 subject areas such as mathematics, science, fine arts, performance
6 arts, or foreign language. The charter of a charter school which
7 offers grades nine through twelve shall specifically address whether
8 the charter school will comply with the graduation requirements
9 established in Section 11-103.6 of this title. No charter school
10 shall be chartered for the purpose of offering a curriculum for deaf
11 or blind students that is the same or similar to the curriculum
12 being provided by or for educating deaf or blind students that are
13 being served by the Oklahoma School for the Blind or the Oklahoma
14 School for the Deaf;
15 4. A charter school shall participate in the testing as
16 required by the Oklahoma School Testing Program Act and the
17 reporting of test results as is required of a school district. A
18 charter school shall also provide any necessary data to the Office
19 of Accountability;
20 5. Except as otherwise provided for in the Oklahoma Charter
21 Schools Act and its charter, a charter school shall be exempt from
22 all statutes and rules relating to schools, boards of education, and
23 school districts;
24
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1 6. A charter school, to the extent possible, shall be subject
2 to the same reporting requirements, financial audits, audit
3 procedures, and audit requirements as a school district. The State
4 Department of Education or State Auditor and Inspector may conduct
5 financial, program, or compliance audits. A charter school shall
6 use the Oklahoma Cost Accounting System to report financial
7 transactions to the sponsoring school district or sponsor. The
8 charter school shall be subject to the limitations on spending,
9 including provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution, for any funds
10 received from the state, either through the State Department of
11 Education or other sources;
12 7. A charter school shall comply with all federal and state
13 laws relating to the education of children with disabilities in the
14 same manner as a school district;
15 8. A charter school shall provide for a governing body board
16 for the school which shall be responsible for the policies and
17 operational decisions of the charter school;
18 9. A charter school shall not provide or otherwise supplement
19 instruction of students enrolled in private schools or be used as a
20 method of generating revenue for students who are being home
21 schooled and are not being educated at an organized charter school
22 site;
23 10. A charter school may shall not charge tuition or fees;
24
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1 11. A charter school shall provide instruction each year for at
2 least the number of days or hours required in Section 1-109 of this
3 title;
4 12. A charter school shall comply with the student suspension
5 requirements provided for in Section 24-101.3 of this title;
6 13. A cha