2015-16 Annual Charter School Survey. - (CA Dept of Education)

2015-16 Annual Information Survey Instructions - Announcements & Current Issues (CA Dept of Education):

2015-16 Annual Information Survey Instructions

Directions for completing the 2015-16 Annual Charter School Survey.

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The information on this survey will update the California Department of Education's (CDE's) charter schools information. Please make any necessary additions, corrections, or modifications to the online survey to update charter school data for the 2015-16 fiscal year (FY).
Required fields are noted with an asterisk (*).

Section 1 - Charter School Location(s) and Contact School Information

School Information

Please review and edit the school information. The physical address refers to the physical location of the school or main site for non-classroom-based charter schools. Please include a mailing address if different.
If the physical address is not yet secured please use the mailing address. If neither a physical address nor mailing address is available, please use the mailing address of the authorizing local educational agency (LEA) in the interim.
Updates will be made upon finalizing a permanent school address by notifying the CDE. The CDE employs an online Web application called the Online Public Update for School (OPUS). By working with your authorizing LEA, you update their OPUS records as well as the CDE’s. The CDS Coordinator is listed on the California Public School Directory, under your charter school information.

DUNS Number

In accordance with the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, sub-grantees are required to report information, including a Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number, to the CDE to receive funding. Pursuant to 2 Code of Federal Regulations Part 25.205, failure to register and submit this information may result in delayed grant distributions or cancellation of a grant award. For additional information on this requirement and how to register for a DUNS number, please refer to http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/dunsguide.pdf  (PDF) andhttp://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/list/fbci/duns.pdf.  (PDF)

Primary School Contact

The contact and e-mail address provided in this section are used to compile the Listserv used by the CDE to notify charter school contacts of important information. Please name the most suitable contact for the charter school, which is often the following: charter administrator or principal, business manager, or chief executive officer of a charter management organization.

Location of Additional Sites

If the charter school operates at additional sites, including resource centers, meeting spaces, and/or other satellite facilities, please list the site name and addresses of ALL locations.

Section 2 - Education Agency that Approved the Charter

Enter the web address for the local educational agency in addition to the contact information in the provided boxes.

Section 3 - Site, Curriculum and Governance Information

Operation

This is the first date of instruction, i.e., the first date the charter school enrolled and began serving pupils. This does not refer to the date the charter school will begin instruction in the 2015-16 school year, unless the charter school is newly operational in 2015-16.
Note that pursuant to California Education Code EC Section 47652 , a charter school must commence instruction between July 1 and September 30 to be eligible for any state apportionment in the current fiscal year.

Renewal and Expiration Dates

These dates will be viewable, but edits cannot be made. If the charter has been recently renewed, please e-mail an electronic copy of the renewed charter petition, and a copy of the authorizing LEA’s approved minutes showing the charter renewal to:cschmid@cde.ca.gov. Remaining questions may be directed to this email account as well charterdata@cde.ca.gov.

Type of School

Please select or verify that the charter school is correctly identified as a conversion of a public school or a startup school.

Classroom-based Instruction and Non-classroom-based Instruction

Please select or verify that the type of instruction offered by the charter school is correctly identified as a classroom-based or non-classroom-based. Please refer to EC Section 47612.5  and EC Section 47634.2  for clarification.

Workforce Partnership

If the charter school has an exclusive partnership with one or more entities pursuant to EC Section 47612.1 , please check all that apply. For each entity selected, provide the effective date that instruction commenced for that charter school program.

Multi-track Calendar

If the charter school operates on a multi-track calendar, for additional information please refer to EC Section 47612 .

Incorporation

Please select or verify that the charter school is operated by, or as, a non-profit, for-profit or neither. If the charter school has completed legal incorporation proceedings, please send proof of incorporation to the CDE. If the charter school has not completed legal incorporation proceedings, select, “Charter School is not operated by, or as, a corporation." Upon completion, please send notification and proof of incorporation to the CDE so as to update the data accordingly. Notification and proof of incorporation may be sent directly to charters@cde.ca.gov.

Management Organization

Please select yes or no if you are part of either a Charter Management Organization or an Education Management Organization. If yes, enter the name of the organization in the provided box.

Section 4 - Facilities, Retirement and Services Information

Facilities

Proposition 39 requires school districts to provide charter schools with facilities that are sufficient and reasonably equivalent to other buildings, classrooms, or facilities in the district.

5 CCR Section 11969.7  requires charter schools that receive or occupy Proposition 39 facilities shall report the per-square-foot charge it is paying to the CDE. The CDE shall post the per-square-foot amounts reported by charter schools on its publicly accessible Web site. The CDE shall offer the opportunity to each school district to provide explanatory information regarding its per-square-foot charge and shall post any information received.
If you have questions regarding this section, please refer to the Proposition 39 and Charter Schools Web page, or contact the Charter Schools Division by phone at 916-322-6029 or by e-mail at charters@cde.ca.gov.

Services

Please check the appropriate box. If the charter school is NOT providing educational instruction (i.e., claiming attendance) for FY 2015-16, please answer "No" and provide an explanation. The survey may then be submitted.

Section 5 - Funding

All charter schools must be either directly or locally funded. The decision on whether to be funded direct or local generally impacts the method of allocating funds rather than the amount of the allocation. For example, Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) apportionment funds for a locally funded charter school flow through its local chartering authority whereas funds for a direct funded charter school may flow directly to the county treasurer and then to the charter school. However, the fund type decision may impact the amount of other state and federal funds that a charter school receives, outside the LCFF. This decision may be reconsidered on an annual basis. Note that due to the impact the fund type selection has on many programs, the fund type selected may not be changed during the fiscal year.
In addition to how a charter school receives its funding, the direct fund type selection also affects the manner in which a charter school participates in the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) system. A charter school selecting the direct funding type is fully responsible for all CAASPP administration and is reported as its own Local Educational Agency (LEA). A charter school selecting the local funding type will administer all CAASPP assessments with the authorizing LEA and scores will be reported with the authorizing LEA
The CDE encourages charter schools that may want to select the direct fund type to review the direct funding option information on the Apportionment and Categorical Funding Guidance Web page found athttp://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cs/as/appcatbgguidtoc.asp and the CAASPP Web page found at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/ to discuss this decision with their chartering authority.

Continuing Schools Funding Selection on File at the CDE for FY 2015-16

The pre-populated answer to the survey statement '2014-15 funding type:' indicates the current fund type selection on file at the CDE for charter schools that operated in FY 2014-15. A continuing charter school is one that was operating and received funding in FY 2014-15. A continuing school with 'Local' or 'Direct' as the fund type that wants to change its funding selection for FY 2015-16, must do so in the next question on the survey.

New Charter Schools Choice of Local or Direct Fund Type

Each newly operational charter school - including conversion charter schools - must make a fund type selection.
The fund type decision may impact the amount of funding a charter school receives for programs outside of the LCFF. This is because funding for programs not in the LCFF may be based on prior-year enrollment or requires a separate application process, and a new charter school may not have the eligibility, resources, or expertise to independently access these funds in a timely manner. Therefore, the CDE encourages funding locally through the charter school's local chartering authority, in the first year of operation.

County Charters

This section pertains to charter schools approved as:

• A county program charter pursuant to EC Section 47605.5  (i.e., provides direct education and related services to pupils for whom the county office of education is otherwise responsible).
• A countywide charter pursuant to EC Section 47605.6  (i.e., provides instructional services that are not generally provided by a county office of education; operates one or more sites within the geographic boundaries of the county; and provides educational services to a pupil population that will benefit from those services and that cannot be served as well by a charter school that operates in only one school district in the county).

Please check the applicable box(es). Check option C only if the school's charter has been approved as a countywide charter school pursuant to EC Section 47605.6  (see second bullet above).
The district of residence may be responsible for the transfer of the in-lieu of property tax portion of the charter school's general purpose entitlement pursuant to EC Section 47632  and EC Section 47635 . The transfer of the in-lieu of property taxes is required to be made monthly based on the amount certified by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. As such, the CDE recommends that the charter school contact each school district of residence as early as possible to identify the average daily attendance (ADA) that will be reported to the CDE and to discuss the methodology for the transfer of the in-lieu of taxes.

End of Survey

Certification

The 2015-16 CDE Charter Schools Annual Information Survey should be completed and the information certified by an authorized representative of the charter school.
A copy of the survey should be maintained on file by the charter school.