Dear Charter School Administrators, County and District Superintendents, and County and District Chief Business Officials:

SENATE BILL 740 MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES REQUEST FOR NONCLASSROOM-BASED CHARTER SCHOOLS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010–11

This letter is to provide guidance on and clarify the submission of a “mitigating circumstances” request for nonclassroom-based charter schools pursuant to the requirements of Senate Bill (SB) 740 and Title 5, California Code of Regulations (5 CCR). Charter schools with an approved funding determination are facing a challenging economic environment and an unprecedented budgetary crisis. These factors and others have a negative effect on a charter school’s ability to achieve the expenditure targets for certificated staff and instructional costs required under the SB 740 funding determination process.

The Charter Schools Division (CSD) will review “mitigating circumstances” requests pursuant to 5 CCR, Section 11963.4(e), which states:

A reasonable basis [also known as a mitigating circumstance] for the Advisory Commission on Charter Schools to make a recommendation other than one that results from the criteria specified in subdivision (a) may include, but not be limited to, the following: the information provided by the charter school pursuant to paragraphs (2) through (8), inclusive, of subdivision (b) of section 11963.3, documented data regarding individual circumstances of the charter school (e.g., one-time or unique or exceptional expenses for facilities, acquisition of a school bus, acquisition and installation of computer hardware not related to the instructional program, special education charges levied on the charter school by a local educational agency, restricted state, federal, or private grants of funds awarded to the charter school that cannot be expended for teacher salaries, or contracted instructional services other than those for special education), the size of the charter school, and how many years the charter school has been in operation. The Advisory Commission on Charter Schools shall give charter schools with less than a total of one hundred (100) units of prior year second period average daily attendance or that are in their first year of operation serious consideration of full funding.

A mitigating circumstances request must be submitted in writing to the CSD and signed by an authorized individual representing the charter school. A mitigating circumstances request also must clearly provide the “documented data regarding the individual and specific circumstances of the requesting charter school.” Each charter school’s mitigating circumstance request should include the factors that are unique to that individual charter school. Although this is not intended to be a complete list, such factors could range from the consideration of one-time special purpose funds and facilities costs to those of administrative costs and set-asides for reserves. The CSD will focus its review on requests that are well documented and clearly delineate a charter school’s individual circumstances. A charter school may be required to provide additional information in support of its mitigating circumstances request.

A charter school’s mitigating circumstances request for the current 2010–11 fiscal year is due to the CSD no later than June 1, 2011. This is a critical deadline so that the request can undergo CSD review and be available for consideration by the ACCS at its August 3, 2011, meeting and the State Board of Education at its September 7–8, 2011, meeting. As you know, a new fiscal year is upon us, so it is important to comply with the June 1 submission deadline in order for a charter school to avoid a retroactive mitigating circumstances request for the current fiscal year.

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact Jay Harris, Education Programs Consultant, Charter Schools Division, by phone at 916-323-5833 or by e-mail at jharris@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

Beth Hunkapiller, Division Director
Charter Schools Division