Charter Schools in CalSAAS

1. Charter school assignments are monitored annually.
   Education Code §44258.9 has been amended to include charters in annual assignment monitoring. See section below for information on the charter school monitoring hierarchy.
   
   
2. ALL charter school teachers are required to satisfy the requirements for professional fitness pursuant to Education Code Sections 44339, 44340, and 44341 by July 1, 2020. 
   
   This requires no additional steps for credentialed charter teachers with valid Commission-issued documents. However:
   
   1) Those who have let their documents lapse may need to renew their documents and get fingerprinted. Note, educators whose documents are expired for 18 months or longer are required to submit new fingerprints when renewing their documents or applying for additional documents; and
   
   2) Educators and Instructional Support Service providers serving in charter schools without credentials will need to obtain a Certificate of Clearance.
   
   Obtaining this document assures student safety, and creates a State Educator Identification Number (SEID), which both CALPADS and CalSAAS can use to track the educator's assignments.
   
   
3. Teachers employed by charter schools are required to obtain the appropriate credential authorizations for their assignment by July 1, 2025.
   
   Pursuant to Education Code §47605.4, teachers employed in charter schools must hold the appropriate credential to serve in their assignments.
   
   This provision states that teachers employed during the 2019-20 school year have until July 1, 2025 to earn the document. In the interim period, CalSAAS allows these to be determined as 2019-20 Charter. Although these will be considered misassignments, the charter school is not required to correct the misassignment within 30 days as outlined in Education Code §44258.9(e)(9).
   
   Teachers hired to teach in charter schools for the first time after 2019-20 are required to hold the appropriate credential authorizations, and are not able to use the above mentioned local assignment option determination. Likewise, if a teacher is assigned to teach a subject other than the one they taught during the 2019-20 school year, then they would also be required to hold the appropriate credential authorizations. Failure to ensure that all newly hired charter school teachers and charter school teachers with new assignments hold the appropriate credential after the 2019-20 school year will result in misassignments and charter schools will be subject to the statutory requirement outlined in 44258.9(e)(9).
   
   
4. Charter schools are exempt from monitoring their service assignments (e.g. pupil-personnel, administrative, etc.)
   
   Education Code §44258.9(b)(2) provides that misassignments can only be accrued for teaching positions in charter schools. However, this only applies to Administrative, Pupil-Personnel, Health, Librarian, and other similar certificated services positions oriented outside of the classroom. It does not apply to English learner and Special Education assignments; these positions are not exempt, and will be monitored and reported.
   
   Please note that non-charter schools are not subject to this exemption, and require all certificated assignment be subject to monitoring.
   

The Monitoring Authority of Charter Schools is dependent upon the chartering authority.

The monitoring authority is responsible for:

1. Verifying and finalizing determinations prior to their submission to the Commission;
2. Outreach, and technical assistance to the LEAs it presides over
3. Assuring that each employee of the school district in a position requiring certification qualifications has a valid certificated document registered as required by law authorizing him or her to serve in the position to which he or she is assigned (Education Code §35035(g)).
4. Submitting the final Assignment Monitoring report to the Commission.
   

Nonetheless, Education Code §44258.9(e)(8) specifically provides that Districts may request technical assistance in determining potential misassignments and vacant positions from the county office of education in the county in which the chartering authority is located. Therefore, Counties will be able to view district authorized charter exceptions in their "scope", through they will not be able to make any changes to them.

As districts are the chartering authority for some charter schools, they are required to act as the monitoring authority for the charters within their purview. This entails reviewing and verifying determinations, as mentioned above. Furthermore, it also requires that they finalize and submit all exceptions for their authorized charter schools. County Offices of Education will not be able to submit exceptions for charter schools that were authorized by a school district.