Arkansas law provides that an unlimited number of conversion charter schools may exist.  Arkansas law provides that the number of open enrollment charters that are allowed automatically increases by five each time the number of schools comes within two slots of the cap, which is initially set at 24.  In addition,  Arkansas law allows high-performing open enrollment charter schools to petition the state board of education for additional sites that do not count against the cap. Although such provisions now allow adequate room for charter school growth, the state board of education may still impose a cap on the number of students that open enrollment charter schools may enroll. As of the 2011-12 school year, there were 12 conversion charter schools and 19 open enrollment charter schools in operation.

Arkansas law allows new start-ups, public school conversions, and virtual schools.

Arkansas law requires conversion charter schools to be approved by the local school board and the state board of education. It requires new start-up charter schools (or open enrollment charter schools) to be approved by the local school board and the state board of education or by the state board of education only if an applicant appeals a local school board's denial to the state board of education.

Arkansas law requires the state department of education to conduct an annual evaluation of all open-enrollment charter schools, with core elements detailed including student scores, attendance, grades, discipline incidents, socioeconomic data, parent and student satisfaction, and compliance with reporting requirements.

Arkansas law requires the state board of education to report on the status of the open-enrollment public charter school programs to the General Assembly each biennium and to the House Interim Committee on Education and the Senate Interim Committee on Education during the interim between regular sessions of the General Assembly.

Currently, the state department of education has allocated a staff position out of their budget to oversee the charter program, which includes traditional reporting accountability for such departmental funds (but no required specific separate reporting of authorizer expenditures).

Arkansas law and regulation require that a consistent form (as created by the state department of education) must be used by all charter applicants. In addition, detailed timelines exist regarding the core aspects of the charter application, review, and decision-making process.Arkansas law and regulation include details regarding petition application contents and processes for conversion schools, as well as open enrollment schools. They also detail the conditions under which a successful open enrollment school may petition the state board for a license to open an additional site (i.e., replication).

Arkansas law requires that decisions regarding approvals must be made in a public meeting and that denials of charter applications must be in writing and include reasons for such disapproval. It requires decisions about open enrollment charter schools to involve a hearing with the state board, including in-person testimony and questions.

Although not required by statute, the state board of education uses review criteria recommended by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

Arkansas law requires that the charter must be in the form of a written contract signed by the authorizer and the chief operating officer of the charter school (but there is no requirement that it be signed by the charter school governing board).Arkansas law includes a long list of charter contract contents focused on school responsibilities (but nothing regarding roles and responsibilities of the authorizer).

Arkansas law specifies that the charter contract provides that the continuation or renewal of the charter is contingent on acceptable student performance on assessment instruments adopted by the state board and on compliance with any accountability provisions specified within the charter. It also provides that the charter contract must establish the level of student performance that is considered acceptable for continuance and renewal (but it does not list a minimum set of essential measures and metrics).

Arkansas law provides that the initial term of a charter is five years.

Arkansas law and regulations require each charter school to provide an annual report to parents, the community, and the state board.

Arkansas law requires that open-enrollment charter schools submit its scores for all students enrolled for standardized assessments to the state department of education within ten calendar days of the close of the fourth quarter of each school year.

While the law does not require authorizers to produce and publish annual school performance reports aligned with the performance framework set forth in each charter as provided in the model law, the law requires the state department to conduct an annual evaluation of all charter schools, with core elements detailed including student scores, attendance, grades, discipline incidents, socioeconomic data, parent and student satisfaction, on-site monitoring, and other terms of the school’s charter.

Arkansas law provides that charter schools are subject to the same auditing and accounting requirements as any other public school district, including an annual fiscal audit.

Arkansas law provides the state board with the authority to require charter schools to appear before them to discuss the results of the state department's annual evaluation and to present further information as needed. It requires the state board to notify the charter school of any concerns, and allows schools to request a hearing on these concerns. It also provides the state board with the authority to modify a charter, place it on probation, revoke, or deny renewal.

Arkansas law requires the state department of education to conduct an annual evaluation of all charter schools, with core elements detailed including student scores, attendance, grades, discipline incidents, socioeconomic data, parent and student satisfaction, compliance with statutory reporting requirements, and other terms of the school’s charter.

Arkansas law and regulations outline a transparent process for review and renewal. While they do not specify criteria for renewal, they provide criteria for non-renewal. In addition, they require each charter school to establish the level of student performance that is considered acceptable for continuation or renewal.

Arkansas law provides that the terms of the renewal may be one year or multi-year (up to five years for conversion charter schools and up to 20 years for open enrollment charter schools).

Arkansas law requires the state board to notify via certified mail of alleged violations of the school's charter contract. As provided by Arkansas law, due process procedures include an opportunity for a hearing to the persons operating the charter school and to the parents of students enrolled in the school.

Arkansas law and regulation detail information regarding school non-renewal or revocation issues in relation to dispersement of assets, but are silent on parent notification and student and record transitions.

Arkansas law is silent regarding these arrangements. Thus, there is nothing explicit in law which prevents schools from contracting with educational service providers to operate a school nor guides the state board in their review of such provisions.

Arkansas law requires conversion charter schools to remain a part of the local school district which approved them.
Arkansas law requires that open enrollment charter schools become fiscally and legally autonomous entities governed by an eligible entity that is fiscally accountable and under the governing structure as described by the charter.

Arkansas law requires open enrollment charter schools to be open to all students in the state and conversion charter schools to be open to all students in the district.

Arkansas law requires charter schools to use a random anonymous student selection method if interest exceeds capacity (and a weighted lottery may be used when necessary to comply with legally required desegregation efforts).  State law provides that prior year students who wish to continue in attendance at their open enrollment charter school do not have to go through the application and lottery process.

Arkansas law allows open enrollment schools to provide an enrollment preference for children of a school's founders (although these cannot exceed 10% of the school’s enrollment) and siblings of children in the school.

Arkansas law does not grant any automatic exemptions. Instead, it requires each charter application to identify specific exemptions desired and request those as part of the application process (which includes any requested exemptions to teacher certification requirements).

Arkansas law provides that open enrollment charter schools are exempt from participation in school district personnel policies, but that conversion charter schools are bound by school district personnel policies.

Arkansas law makes it clear that each charter contract covers a single school site. However, it allows high-performing open enrollment charter schools to petition the state board for licenses to establish additional sites on existing charter contracts (with independent fiscal and academic accountability for each site).  According to the law, these additional sites do not count against the state’s cap of 24 open enrollment charter schools.

Arkansas law is silent about charter eligibility and access. Although open enrollment charter schools are LEAs and thus have all the rights and responsibilities associated with district LEAs, silence on these provisions results in a level of uncertainty.

Arkansas law provides that districts are the LEAs for special education purposes for conversion charter schools and that charter schools are the LEAs for special education purposes for open enrollment charter schools. It also allows both types of charter schools to apply for additional categorical special education funds to help cover low-incident, high-cost special education services.

Per Arkansas law, a conversion charter school receives funds equal to the amount apportioned by the district from state and local revenue per average daily membership.

Per Arkansas law, an open enrollment charter school receives funds equal to the amount that a public school would receive, as well as any other funding that the public charter school is entitled to receive under law.  It requires payments are to be made in 12 installments each fiscal year. In reality, traditional districts are allowed to levy mileages (i.e., property taxes), and as a result open enrollment charter schools receive 18-23% less funding per pupil (when comparing operational and capital revenues). 

In reference to transportation, Arkansas law provides charter schools the same per pupil base amount for transportation as public school districts.

Arkansas law gives open enrollment charter schools the right of first refusal to purchase or lease at fair market value a closed public school (or unused potions) located in a district from which it draws it students. It also provides that a district may not require lease payments that exceed the fair market value of a property, and that a district is not required to lease to an open enrollment charter school if an offer higher than fair market value is offered by an entity other than the charter school through a competitive bid process.

Arkansas law requires certified staff within open enrollment and conversion charter schools to participate in the state retirement system.