"Creating Communities of Care: How Charter Schools can Develop Systems that Support Student Mental Health" provides new tools to help charter schools adapt to the changing needs of their students and staff. This resource focuses on improving student mental health and well-being to help set the foundation for school community wellness.…

The role a school and its teachers play in a child's life is undeniable. Both influence how children understand the world they live in, their place in that world, and their perceptions of future possibilities. Schools where students have opportunities to engage with multicultural curriculum materials, experience culturally responsive and…

This report explains how State Entity (SE) Program grantees are using or proposed to use the technical assistance (TA) set-aside portion of their Charter School Programs (CSP) funds for these activities. This report also describes SE activities to ensure subgrantees are equipped to meet the needs of all students, and specifically students with…

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) funds and administers education programs for a variety of purposes and recognizes and rewards excellence and improvement by students, schools, and communities. As publicly funded schools, charter schools are eligible to apply for federal formula grants as well as discretionary grants administered by various ED…

Although school failure and school improvement are complex challenges that look different in different contexts, patterns and trends associated with schools in distress are emerging. This brief describes the characteristics of schools when they show signs of early distress from the perspectives of school leaders and governing board members. The…

Charter school authorizing is inherently contextual work, and each charter school authorizer is the expert on their own context and portfolio of schools. This toolkit is a self-guided resource for authorizers to "identify" indicators of distress, "audit" their current data collection methods for evaluating indicators of…

Community partnerships empower charter schools by strengthening their capacity to serve the needs of students, families, and staff through deliberate partnerships with community-based entities. The autonomy that charter schools are afforded uniquely equips them with the flexibility to engage partners and even design schools for which one or more…

The Charter School Programs (CSP) State Entities (SE) grant's primary goal is "to award grants to state entities to enable them to award subgrants to eligible applicants to enable such eligible applicants to open and prepare for the operation of new charter schools and to replicate and expand high-quality charter schools." Another…

A school facility's quality and accessibility have important impacts on schools' functionality to serve as places of high-quality education. While these challenges are familiar to most schools in the United States, charter schools are responsible for acquiring and paying for their educational facilities, a responsibility that local school…

The charter school sector currently serves more than 3.2 million students in more than 7,000 schools. In addition, 45 states, DC, Guam, and Puerto Rico have charter school laws. While the sector has experienced tremendous growth, the acquisition and financing of adequate school facilities continues to be a major barrier for school operators and…

Charter school authorizers (authorizers) that are committed to fostering high-quality charter school options for all students have an imperative to understand the nature of school distress and failure. Authorizers and other stakeholders need to be able to identify and understand schools experiencing distress, long before a state accountability…

Charter schools operate under an independent contract with an authorizer, which allows the school to operate with autonomy related to curriculum, staff, and budget. During the 2017-18 school year, charter schools across the United States served more than 3 million students, accounting for approximately 6 percent of all K-12 public school students.…

The information contained in this report is based on data collected from the Charter School Facilities Survey in Louisiana during the 2017-18 school year. The Charter School Facilities Survey consists of 55 base questions which are used in every participating state, with an option for participating states to include 15 additional state-specific…

Nationally, the demand for charter schools is high, yet access to affordable school facilities is a continued barrier to the growth of the charter sector. This paper, produced by the National Charter School Resource Center (NCSRC) in partnership with the Colorado League of Charter Schools (CLCS) and Momentum Strategies & Research, addresses…

Charter schools have always had difficulty finding affordable buildings. In response, charter school supporters have explored many policy and market approaches, ranging from strategies easing access to district facilities to increasing both public and private revenue options for facilities purposes. This paper, produced by the National Charter…