Florida Senate - 2020                             CS for SB 1420
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Education; and Senator Flores
       
       
       
       
       
       581-02439-20                                          20201420c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to charter schools; amending s.
    3         1002.33, F.S.; prohibiting sponsors from refusing to
    4         receive a charter school application submitted during
    5         the calendar year; revising how charter schools
    6         operated by not-for-profit or municipal entities may
    7         use certain unrestricted current and capital assets;
    8         amending s. 1002.331, F.S.; specifying how many
    9         applications a high-performing charter school may
   10         submit in any school district in the state to
   11         establish and operate a new charter school; providing
   12         applicability; amending s. 1002.45, F.S.; revising the
   13         virtual instruction a virtual charter school may
   14         provide; providing an effective date.
   15          
   16  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   17  
   18         Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subsection (6) and paragraph
   19  (b) of subsection (17) of section 1002.33, Florida Statutes, are
   20  amended to read:
   21         1002.33 Charter schools.—
   22         (6) APPLICATION PROCESS AND REVIEW.—Charter school
   23  applications are subject to the following requirements:
   24         (b) A sponsor shall receive and review all applications for
   25  a charter school using the evaluation instrument developed by
   26  the Department of Education. A sponsor shall receive and
   27  consider charter school applications received during on or
   28  before August 1 of each calendar year for charter schools to be
   29  opened at the beginning of the school district’s next school
   30  year, or to be opened at a time determined agreed to by the
   31  applicant and the sponsor. A sponsor may not refuse to receive a
   32  charter school application submitted by an applicant during the
   33  calendar year. before August 1 and may receive an application
   34  submitted later than August 1 if it chooses. Beginning in 2018
   35  and thereafter, a sponsor shall receive and consider charter
   36  school applications received on or before February 1 of each
   37  calendar year for charter schools to be opened 18 months later
   38  at the beginning of the school district’s school year, or to be
   39  opened at a time determined by the applicant. A sponsor may not
   40  refuse to receive a charter school application submitted before
   41  February 1 and may receive an application submitted later than
   42  February 1 if it chooses. A sponsor may not charge an applicant
   43  for a charter any fee for the processing or consideration of an
   44  application, and a sponsor may not base its consideration or
   45  approval of a final application upon the promise of future
   46  payment of any kind. Before approving or denying any
   47  application, the sponsor shall allow the applicant, upon receipt
   48  of written notification, at least 7 calendar days to make
   49  technical or nonsubstantive corrections and clarifications,
   50  including, but not limited to, corrections of grammatical,
   51  typographical, and like errors or missing signatures, if such
   52  errors are identified by the sponsor as cause to deny the final
   53  application.
   54         1. In order to facilitate an accurate budget projection
   55  process, a sponsor shall be held harmless for FTE students who
   56  are not included in the FTE projection due to approval of
   57  charter school applications after the FTE projection deadline.
   58  In a further effort to facilitate an accurate budget projection,
   59  within 15 calendar days after receipt of a charter school
   60  application, a sponsor shall report to the Department of
   61  Education the name of the applicant entity, the proposed charter
   62  school location, and its projected FTE.
   63         2. In order to ensure fiscal responsibility, an application
   64  for a charter school shall include a full accounting of expected
   65  assets, a projection of expected sources and amounts of income,
   66  including income derived from projected student enrollments and
   67  from community support, and an expense projection that includes
   68  full accounting of the costs of operation, including start-up
   69  costs.
   70         3.a. A sponsor shall by a majority vote approve or deny an
   71  application no later than 90 calendar days after the application
   72  is received, unless the sponsor and the applicant mutually agree
   73  in writing to temporarily postpone the vote to a specific date,
   74  at which time the sponsor shall by a majority vote approve or
   75  deny the application. If the sponsor fails to act on the
   76  application, an applicant may appeal to the State Board of
   77  Education as provided in paragraph (c). If an application is
   78  denied, the sponsor shall, within 10 calendar days after such
   79  denial, articulate in writing the specific reasons, based upon
   80  good cause, supporting its denial of the application and shall
   81  provide the letter of denial and supporting documentation to the
   82  applicant and to the Department of Education.
   83         b. An application submitted by a high-performing charter
   84  school identified pursuant to s. 1002.331 or a high-performing
   85  charter school system identified pursuant to s. 1002.332 may be
   86  denied by the sponsor only if the sponsor demonstrates by clear
   87  and convincing evidence that:
   88         (I) The application of a high-performing charter school
   89  does not materially comply with the requirements in paragraph
   90  (a) or, for a high-performing charter school system, the
   91  application does not materially comply with s. 1002.332(2)(b);
   92         (II) The charter school proposed in the application does
   93  not materially comply with the requirements in paragraphs
   94  (9)(a)-(f);
   95         (III) The proposed charter school’s educational program
   96  does not substantially replicate that of the applicant or one of
   97  the applicant’s high-performing charter schools;
   98         (IV) The applicant has made a material misrepresentation or
   99  false statement or concealed an essential or material fact
  100  during the application process; or
  101         (V) The proposed charter school’s educational program and
  102  financial management practices do not materially comply with the
  103  requirements of this section.
  104  
  105  Material noncompliance is a failure to follow requirements or a
  106  violation of prohibitions applicable to charter school
  107  applications, which failure is quantitatively or qualitatively
  108  significant either individually or when aggregated with other
  109  noncompliance. An applicant is considered to be replicating a
  110  high-performing charter school if the proposed school is
  111  substantially similar to at least one of the applicant’s high
  112  performing charter schools and the organization or individuals
  113  involved in the establishment and operation of the proposed
  114  school are significantly involved in the operation of replicated
  115  schools.
  116         c. If the sponsor denies an application submitted by a
  117  high-performing charter school or a high-performing charter
  118  school system, the sponsor must, within 10 calendar days after
  119  such denial, state in writing the specific reasons, based upon
  120  the criteria in sub-subparagraph b., supporting its denial of
  121  the application and must provide the letter of denial and
  122  supporting documentation to the applicant and to the Department
  123  of Education. The applicant may appeal the sponsor’s denial of
  124  the application in accordance with paragraph (c).
  125         4. For budget projection purposes, the sponsor shall report
  126  to the Department of Education the approval or denial of an
  127  application within 10 calendar days after such approval or
  128  denial. In the event of approval, the report to the Department
  129  of Education shall include the final projected FTE for the
  130  approved charter school.
  131         5. Upon approval of an application, the initial startup
  132  shall commence with the beginning of the public school calendar
  133  for the district in which the charter is granted. A charter
  134  school may defer the opening of the school’s operations for up
  135  to 3 years to provide time for adequate facility planning. The
  136  charter school must provide written notice of such intent to the
  137  sponsor and the parents of enrolled students at least 30
  138  calendar days before the first day of school.
  139         (17) FUNDING.—Students enrolled in a charter school,
  140  regardless of the sponsorship, shall be funded as if they are in
  141  a basic program or a special program, the same as students
  142  enrolled in other public schools in the school district. Funding
  143  for a charter lab school shall be as provided in s. 1002.32.
  144         (b) The basis for the agreement for funding students
  145  enrolled in a charter school shall be the sum of the school
  146  district’s operating funds from the Florida Education Finance
  147  Program as provided in s. 1011.62 and the General Appropriations
  148  Act, including gross state and local funds, discretionary
  149  lottery funds, and funds from the school district’s current
  150  operating discretionary millage levy; divided by total funded
  151  weighted full-time equivalent students in the school district;
  152  multiplied by the weighted full-time equivalent students for the
  153  charter school. Charter schools whose students or programs meet
  154  the eligibility criteria in law are entitled to their
  155  proportionate share of categorical program funds included in the
  156  total funds available in the Florida Education Finance Program
  157  by the Legislature, including transportation, the research-based
  158  reading allocation, and the Florida digital classrooms
  159  allocation. Total funding for each charter school shall be
  160  recalculated during the year to reflect the revised calculations
  161  under the Florida Education Finance Program by the state and the
  162  actual weighted full-time equivalent students reported by the
  163  charter school during the full-time equivalent student survey
  164  periods designated by the Commissioner of Education. For charter
  165  schools operated by a not-for-profit or municipal entity, any
  166  unrestricted current and capital assets identified in the
  167  charter school’s annual financial audit may be used for other
  168  charter schools operated by the not-for-profit or municipal
  169  entity within the state school district. Unrestricted current
  170  assets shall be used in accordance with s. 1011.62, and any
  171  unrestricted capital assets shall be used in accordance with s.
  172  1013.62(2).
  173         Section 2. Subsection (3) of section 1002.331, Florida
  174  Statutes, is amended to read:
  175         1002.331 High-performing charter schools.—
  176         (3)(a)1. A high-performing charter school may submit an
  177  application pursuant to s. 1002.33(6) in any school district in
  178  the state to establish and operate a new charter school that
  179  will substantially replicate its educational program. An
  180  application submitted by a high-performing charter school must
  181  state that the application is being submitted pursuant to this
  182  paragraph and must include the verification letter provided by
  183  the Commissioner of Education pursuant to subsection (4).
  184         2. If the sponsor fails to act on the application within 90
  185  days after receipt, the application is deemed approved and the
  186  procedure in s. 1002.33(7) applies.
  187         (b) A high-performing charter school may submit two
  188  applications for a charter school not establish more than two
  189  charter schools within the state under paragraph (a) to be
  190  opened at a time determined by the high-performing charter
  191  school. in any year. A subsequent application to establish a
  192  charter school under paragraph (a) may not be submitted unless
  193  each charter school application commences operations or an
  194  application is otherwise withdrawn. each charter school
  195  established in this manner achieves high-performing charter
  196  school status. However, a high-performing charter school may
  197  establish more than one charter school within the state under
  198  paragraph (a) in any year if it operates in the area of a
  199  persistently low-performing school and serves students from that
  200  school.
  201         (c) This section applies to any high-performing charter
  202  school with an existing approved application.
  203         Section 3. Paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of section
  204  1002.45, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
  205         1002.45 Virtual instruction programs.—
  206         (1) PROGRAM.—
  207         (d) A virtual charter school may provide full-time and
  208  part-time virtual instruction for students in kindergarten
  209  through grade 12 if the virtual charter school has a charter
  210  approved pursuant to s. 1002.33 authorizing full-time virtual
  211  instruction. A virtual charter school may:
  212         1. Contract with the Florida Virtual School.
  213         2. Contract with or be an approved provider under
  214  subsection (2).
  215         3. Enter into an agreement with a school district to allow
  216  the participation of the virtual charter school’s students in
  217  the school district’s virtual instruction program. The agreement
  218  must indicate a process for reporting of student enrollment and
  219  the transfer of funds required by paragraph (7)(e).
  220         4. Contract with any public or charter school to provide
  221  any course that the virtual school cannot otherwise provide.
  222         Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2020.