Georgia

Georgia law does not place any caps on charter school growth.

Georgia law allows new start-ups and public school conversions.

Georgia law allows local school boards, a state charter school commission, and the state board of education to serve as authorizers. It requires those seeking a state charter school with a state-wide attendance area to apply directly to the commission and to provide a copy of their application as information only to the local district in which the school will be located. For those seeking a state charter school with a defined attendance area, the law requires the application to be submitted concurrently to the local board(s) impacted by the proposal and the commission. The law provides that the commission cannot consider the application until it is denied at the local level or no action is taken on it at the local level within 60 days of submission. The law requires the state board of education to review and allows it to overrule the approval or renewal of a state charter school by the state charter school commission within 90 days of such decision.
Georgia law also allows applicants to appeal denials by local school boards to the state board of education, who serves as the authorizer if it overturns the local school board’s denial. Such schools are called “state-chartered special schools.”

Georgia law and guidelines require authorizers to submit an annual report to the state board of education regarding the academic performance and fiscal responsibility of their charter schools.Georgia guidelines require the state department of education to annually assign authorizers to one of four categories (first time authorizer, exemplary authorizer, adequate authorizer, and authorizer needs improvement).
Georgia law requires that the state board of education and the state charter school commission jointly establish authorizing principles and standards that must be used by all state and local authorizers. An independent party must be used to conduct an annual review of all local board authorizers and the state charter school commission. A charter school authorized by a local board that fails to meet the principles and standards for two consecutive years may petition to transfer its authorization to the state charter school commission, with the commission approving such a petition if, based on the school’s prior performance, it is likely to meet the commission’s comprehensive performance framework. If the state charter school commission declines to authorize the school, it shall continue to operate under the terms of its charter with the local board. Any school authorized by a local board after July 1, 2017, must include a provision for termination if the local board fails to meet the principles and standards for two consecutive years.
While the law does not require the legislature and governor to regularly review the performance of the state board of education and the state charter school commission as authorizers, they can do so at any time. In addition, the legislature and governor can remove the ability of the state board of education and the state charter school commission to continue authorizing (the entities that gave them that authority).
Georgia law requires the state board of education to submit an annual report to the General Assembly on the status of the charter school program.

Georgia law establishes that authorizers may withhold up to 3% of state and local charter school funding for administrative costs.
State rule provides that all authorizers that withhold funds from charter schools have to annually report on the use of such funds to the state department of education.

Georgia law allows for state authorized charter schools to contract with local boards of education for administrative or transportation services. It does not contain a similar provision pertaining to district-authorized charter schools or a similar provision allowing such contracting with non-district authorizers.

Georgia guidelines provide that each authorizer that provides oversight of a charter school shall include in its annual report a written confirmation that it has not in the preceding year required a commercial contract with any public charter school board under its oversight.

Georgia law, regulations, and guidance establish a detailed process for seeking a charter and for decision-making by authorizers. They provide explicit application elements for all schools and additional application elements specific to conversion schools and educational service providers.
State rule requires an interview of applicants. While a public meeting to review applications is common practice, it is not required by law or rule.

Consistent with Georgia law relating to public entities, charter approvals or denials must be made at a public meeting. The law requires authorizers to provide a written statement of any denial to the petitioner.

Georgia law defines the charter as a performance-based contract between the authorizer and a Georgia nonprofit charter school governing board.
The law requires the petition to define the roles, powers, and responsibilities of schools but not authorizers. These items are incorporated into the contract.

The law requires the petition to generally define academic and operational performance expectations, which are incorporated into the contract.

Under Georgia law, charters are issued for a minimum of five years (unless applicants seek a shorter term) and may not exceed 10 years.

The law requires charter schools to complete an annual performance report and provide it to the local board, state department of education, and parents and guardians of students.
Georgia law requires that charter schools define and follow a prudent financial plan, and that they report annually on fiscal performance, consistent with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Georgia law requires authorizers to ensure that charter school performance goals are being met and the school is complying with applicable accountability provisions and fiscal plans.

Georgia law provides that the state department of education may notify charter schools of perceived problems and give them opportunities to remedy such problems and provides the state department of education with the authority to take appropriate corrective actions or exercise sanctions short of revocation.

Under Georgia law, charter schools seeking renewal must submit a petition to their authorizer, comply with many of the petition requirements applicable to those seeking an initial charter, and provide an executive summary giving an overview of the school’s performance from the school’s perspective and information demonstrating its success. The law also requires renewal applications to include a copy of the school’s original petition with all proposed changes highlighted. The law requires authorizers to base their renewal decisions on this record.
Georgia regulation provides that authorizers may develop policies to provide for an expedited review process for high quality charter school renewal, expansion, and replication.

Georgia law provides that the state board of education may terminate a charter if a majority of the parents or guardians of students enrolled at or a majority of the faculty and instructional staff employed at the charter school vote by a majority vote to request the termination of its charter at a public meeting called with two weeks' advance notice and for the purpose of deciding whether to request the state board to declare the charter null and void.

Georgia law provides that the state board of education may also terminate a charter if, after providing reasonable notice to the charter school and an opportunity for a hearing, the state board finds a failure to comply with any recommendation or direction of the state board with respect to a certain section of state law, a failure to adhere to any material term of the charter, including but not limited to the performance goals set forth in the charter, a failure to meet generally accepted standards of fiscal management, a violation of applicable federal, state, or local laws or court orders, the existence of competent substantial evidence that the continued operation of the charter school would be contrary to the best interests of the students or the community, or a failure to comply with any provision described in state law.

Georgia law provides that the state board of education may also terminate a charter upon the written request of a local board for termination of a charter for a local charter school located within its school system if, prior to making such request, the local board provided reasonable notice to the charter school and an opportunity for a hearing, and determined the existence of any of the grounds described in state law.

Georgia law requires authorizers to base their renewal decisions on evidence presented in the renewal application and provides authorizers with discretion in the length of the renewal term offered (not to exceed 10 years).

Consistent with Georgia law relating to public entities, charter renewal, non-renewal, and revocation decisions must be made at a public meeting. The law requires authorizers to state reasons for non-renewals and revocations in writing.
Georgia law provides a dissolution process that ensures timely notification of parents regarding closure and alternate school options, the handling of school assets and unencumbered funds.

Georgia law explicitly allows charter schools to contract with educational services providers.
Within the application, it requires applicants to submit any intended contracts for the provision of educational management services and a disclosure of any potential conflicts of interest.

According to regulation, for start-up charter schools, teachers and other instructional staff and faculty must be employees of the Governing Board and may not be employed by an Educational Service Provider or other entity affiliated with an Educational Service Provider. The individual with the highest authority in school administration may be employed by an Educational Service Provider only if the Governing Board retains the authority to select and dismiss that individual from service at the charter school. For start-up and conversion charter schools, non-instructional staff, such as the Chief Financial Officer, business manager, bookkeeper, or maintenance personnel, may be employed by entities other than the Governing Board; however, the Governing Board shall remain responsible and accountable for all operations, compliance, and performance of any and all selected contractors.

The law does not explicitly prohibit ESP employees from serving on charter governing boards and does not explicitly require potential conflicts to be outlined. In practice, the Commission petition requires applicants to disclose conflicts, but the law does not require it.

Regulation requires a charter school’s procedures to ensure compliance with the requirement that the school shall not allow any faculty, staff, or governing board member contact with students without having annual documentation of a successful background check as well as the charter school’s policies and procedures that establish the requirement that faculty, staff, and governing board members must immediately disclose to the school the occurrence of any arrests or other such occurrences which would have resulted in an unsuccessful background check if they had occurred prior to the background check. Each school employee must have a clearance certificate from the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (GaPSC).

Georgia rule provides that the nonprofit governing board of a charter school shall have authority to make, but is not limited to, personnel decisions, including selection of the principal or school leader; financial decisions and resource allocation decisions, including establishing the number and type of personnel, curriculum costs, supply costs, equipment costs and maintenance and operations costs; selection of a curriculum and accompanying instructional materials; establishment and monitoring of the achievement of school improvement goals, including approval of the school improvement plan and oversight of its implementation; and operations that are consistent with school improvement goals. The local board shall only override decisions of a conversion charter school’s governing board in those areas where the local board has constitutional authority and has a reasonable belief that a decision will be substantially detrimental to students and is not in the public interest.
The law provides that state-authorized charter schools have their autonomy grounded in the state constitution provision for “special schools” and they act as their own LEAs and fiscal agents.

Georgia law provides that charter schools must be open to any student residing in the district or covered in an inter-district agreement.Georgia law prohibits charter schools from discriminating on any basis that would be illegal if used by a school system.

Georgia law provides that a district-authorized start-up charter school may give enrollment preference to a sibling of a student enrolled in the school, a sibling of a student enrolled in another local school designated in the charter, a student whose parent or guardian is a member of the governing board of the charter school or is a full-time teacher, professional, or other employee at the charter school, students matriculating from a local school designated in the charter, and a sibling of a nonresident student currently enrolled in the charter school.

Georgia law provides that a district-authorized conversion charter school may give enrollment preference to a sibling of a student enrolled in the school or in any school in a high school cluster, a student whose parent or guardian is a member of the governing board of the charter school or is a full-time teacher, professional, or other employee at the charter school, students who were enrolled in the local school prior to its becoming a charter school, students who reside in the charter attendance zone specified in the charter, and a sibling of a nonresident student currently enrolled in the charter school.

Georgia law provides that a state chartered special school may give enrollment preference to a sibling of a student enrolled in the state chartered special school, a sibling of a student enrolled in another local school designated in the charter, a student whose parent or guardian is a member of the governing board of the state chartered special school or is a full-time teacher, professional, or other employee at the state chartered special school, students matriculating from a local school designated in the charter, and children who matriculate from a pre-kindergarten program which is associated with the state chartered special school, including but not limited to, programs which share common facilities or campuses with the school or programs which have established a partnership or cooperative efforts with the school.
Georgia law provides that charter schools may provide educationally disadvantaged students an increased chance of admission through a weighted lottery if permitted by the school’s charter.
Georgia law requires charter schools to admit students via a random selection process when the number of applications exceeds the capacity of a program, class, grade level, or building.

Georgia law provides that charter schools can request blanket waivers from state and local rules and regulations in exchange for accountability promises or negotiate individualized waivers. It allows charter schools to seek waivers from teacher certification requirements as part of overall waivers.

In Georgia, it is illegal for teachers to engage in collective bargaining. In addition, Georgia law provides that charter schools are exempt from participation in any district personnel policies.Georgia law provides that charter schools are exempt from participation in any district personnel policies.

Georgia law is silent regarding these arrangements, although some multi-school charter contracts and multi-charter contract boards have been established in practice.

Georgia law is silent about charter eligibility and access.

For district-authorized schools, Georgia law provides that the district is the LEA and retains responsibility for providing special education services. For state-authorized schools, the law provides that the school is the LEA and retains the responsibility for providing special education services.Georgia law provides that charter schools have the opportunity to join and receive services through the state’s regional educational service agencies.

Georgia law provides that local and state boards must treat a start-up charter school no less favorably than other local schools with regard to funds for instruction, school administration, transportation, food services and, where feasible, building programs. Under Georgia law, district-authorized charter schools must be included in state funding formula quality basic education (QBE) earnings, applicable QBE grants, non-QBE state grants, and applicable federal grants to the local school system.
The law provides that conversion charter schools must be treated no less favorably and the local and state boards must treat start-up charters no less favorably than other local schools with respect to funds for instruction, school administration, transportation, food services, and, where feasible, building programs.
Law changes in 2017 offer added requirements about the equitable distribution of federal funding for charter schools and require the posting by a local board authorizer on its website the calculation of all local, state, and federal funding provided to its chartered schools.

Law changes in 2018 provides additional resources to state-authorized charter schools through state supplement and capital revenue funding streams.

Georgia law provides a per-pupil, needs-based capital-funding program that is distributed through a competitive grant process. The state appropriated roughly $1.4 million to the program for the 2018-19 school year.
Law changes in 2017 now indicate that the state board shall distribute annual facilities grants to eligible applicants in the amount of $100,000 or other amount as determined by the state board. In 2018, the legislature, via its budget, directed the state department of education to use available budgeted funds of approximately $1.2 million as an initial allocation.

Georgia law provides state charter schools and state chartered special schools with an amount equal to the state-wide average total capital revenue per full-time equivalent, as determined by the state department of education. Statute notes that such funding is subject to the appropriations by the General Assembly, but that such schools shall be treated consistently with all other public schools in the state, pursuant to the respective statutory funding formulas and grants. Currently, the state is providing approximately $1,100 per pupil for this item. In addition, there is a capital fund add-on for such schools in “high-rent” districts. The additional capital allotment ranges from $79.80 per pupil to $783.82 per pupil and averages out to be an additional $455.95 per pupil above and beyond the $1,100 allotment.

Georgia law provides charters with access to tax-exempt debt through county development authorities.

Georgia law requires each local board of education to make available any vacant or otherwise unused facility to locally-authorized charters at no lease cost, with any additional terms of use to be negotiated by the parties.

Statute also now indicates that local charter schools which petition to be authorized by the commission must be allowed to continue the use of all facilities, equipment, and other assets it used prior to the expiration or rescission of its charter with a local board of education; however, the local school board can begin to charge or continue to charge a reasonable fee for use of the facilities if the school switches to the commission.

Georgia law provides that charter teachers get equal access to the state retirement system. A state attorney general opinion held that charter school teachers are required to participate in the state retirement system.

Georgia law does not contain any of the model law’s provisions for full-time virtual charter schools. However, Georgia law requires the Department of Audits and Accounts to develop an annual report on state charter schools that offer virtual instruction. The Department of Audits and Accounts may consult with the state charter school commission to develop and collect information for the report.
The annual report shall include at a minimum: school enrollment, including special education population and other subgroups; attendance rate and method of measurement; attrition rate; course segment completion rates; academic performance, including College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores, value-added analysis, Beating the Odds analysis, and student engagement and persistence; other academic performance as it relates to the goals of the school's charter; comparison of student academic growth and achievement prior to placement; governance and management; staffing and teacher qualification data; school finances, including actual income and expenditures for the prior fiscal year; operational performance, including analysis of academic performance as a ratio of per student expenditures; innovative practices and implementation; analysis of alternate academic options for enrolled students; and future plans. The annual report shall also include information on the implementation of professional development plans for persons in administrative, supervisory, or instructional leadership roles who do not hold a valid administrative license; a copy of all charter school agreements for corporate management services, including the company's parent corporation; and agreements for other administrative, financial, and staffing services.
The Department of Audits and Accounts shall submit the annual report on each state charter school that offers virtual instruction to the commission, the State Board of Education, the Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Lieutenant Governor by December 1 of each year. The annual report shall also be posted on the state charter school's official website.
Every four years or the year before a charter for a state charter school that offers virtual instruction becomes eligible for renewal, whichever is earlier, the Department of Audits and Accounts shall compile the data included in the annual reports for such state charter school and identify any long-term trends regarding academic performance, financial data, and governance data. Such comprehensive report shall outline how the state charter school's actual performance compared to the goals outlined in its charter. The Department of Audits and Accounts shall submit the comprehensive report of each such state charter school to the commission, the State Board of Education, the Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Lieutenant Governor by January 1 of the year in which the state charter school becomes eligible for renewal. The comprehensive report shall also be posted on the state charter school's official website.