Charter School Agreements

Wisconsin law provides for an initial charter period of five years. California legislation contains a small number of provisions of the model law for performance-based charter contracts. California law says the Charter petition becomes a charter. The law does not impose a separately negotiated and executed charter contract, which defines the roles, powers and responsibilities of the school and its author, and sets clear performance conditions and provisions on the basis of a performance framework, as recommended by the model legislation. However, the law imposes Local Control Account Plans (LCAPs) that contain results in eight priority areas of the federal government. PCAps must be reviewed and updated annually and made available to the author. In addition, most schools and state licensees make a statement of intent covering administrative and operational designs, but education objectives remain in the Charter, as stated in the petition. Massachusetts does not have a performance contract per se. However, since the state has only one author in the National Board of Education, the Criteria School Performance Charter and the Charter School Board of Directors define the roles, powers and responsibilities of the school and the author (as defined in the regulation), as well as the expectations of academic and corporate performance on which the school is assessed. Massachusetts law provides that charter contracts last for five years.

Under Wisconsin law, charter contracts exist as separate documents from the application and are located between the author and the board of directors of a charter school, but the requirements of the contract relate only to academic roles, powers and responsibilities and do not deal with roles, powers and responsibilities. The law stipulates that charter contracts must contain the requirement that the charter school`s board of directors meet certain annual academic and operational performance standards that have been developed in accordance with the performance framework of the organization with which it enters into a contract. The law requires that the contract clearly state the expectations for academic and operational performance and the measures on which the charter public school is assessed, as well as the administrative relationship between the local school board and the public charter school, including the rights and obligations of each party. The law and directive stipulate that charter contracts must include specific performance, funding and contract standards for students that the charter operator must comply with during the duration of the charter contract. The Kansas law contains a small number of provisions of the model law for performance-based charter contracts.