CASI September 2022 Charter Chat Resource Page

Charter Chat Topics

1. Legislative Updates
2. Program Hot Topics
3. Fiscal Hot Topics
4. Additional Resources
5. Q&A from Previous Charter Chats and CASI Email
6. Q&A from the September Charter Chat

Legislative Updates (As of September 28, 2022)

• Legislative Process Bills go through a two-year legislative process . This is the last year for a bill to complete the process. Bills which have passed are now on the Governor’s desk for signature by September 30, 2022:
  • Assembly Bill (AB) 2774 Placed in suspense by member - This bill would reconfigure the Local Control Funding Formula unduplicated count. Currently, students who qualify for free and reduced-priced meals, English learners, and homeless and foster youth are included in the unduplicated counts for supplemental and concentration funds. If AB 2774 is approved, students in the lowest academic performance category (Red on the California Schools Dashboard) for both English Language Arts and Math would also be identified for additional funding.

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Program Hot Topics

• AB 2158 This new law was signed by the Governor on September 13, 2022. It takes effect on January 1, 2023, and is subject to full compliance by January 1, 2026.  The existing law has required members and certain employees of cities and counties to engage in two hours of ethics training “relevant” to their public service every two years.  AB 2158 adds charter schools to the list of local agencies that are subject to the biennial training requirement and extends the obligation to members of charter school boards.
  • Ethics laws include, but are not limited to, the following:
    • Laws related to personal financial gain by public servants, including, but not limited to, laws prohibiting bribery and conflict of interest
    • Laws related to claiming perquisites of office, including but not limited to, gift and travel restrictions, prohibitions against the use of public resources for personal or political purposes, prohibitions against acceptance of free or discounted transportation by transportation companies
    • Government transparency laws, including but not limited to, financial interest disclosure requirements and open government laws
    • Laws related to fair processes, including but not limited to, common law bias prohibitions, due process requirements, incompatible offices, competitive bidding requirements for public contracts, and disqualification from participating in decisions affecting family members
  • Requirements:
    • The Fair Political Practices Committee and the Attorney General must be “consulted” in connection with the development of course materials
    • Charter schools must provide their officials with information on how they can meet the training requirements at least once annually
    • Charter schools must maintain records for at least five years after the training was provided indicating:
      • The dates that officials satisfied the training requirements and
      • The entit(ies) that provided the training
  • Applicability:
    • Not applicable to board members whose terms will expire before January 1, 2026
    • All other board members seated as of January 1, 2025, must receive the required training by January 1, 2026, and retrain at least once every two years thereafter
    • Applies to [a]n employee designated by a local agency governing body to receive the training specified in the agency’s conflict of interest policy/code
• AB 2449 AB 2449 was signed into law on September 13 and takes effect January 1, 2023. This law amends the Brown Act teleconferencing rules to allow relaxed teleconferencing requirements for members’ personal emergencies and for just cause.  Allows teleconferencing without any obligation to identify the teleconferencing location on the agenda or allow public access to the teleconferencing location. The member must participate through both audio and visual technology.
  • Emergency circumstances means a physical or family medical emergency that prevents a member from attending in person.
  • Just Cause means any of the following:
    • A childcare or caregiving need of a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner that requires them to participate remotely
    • A contagious illness that prevents a member from attending in person
    • A need related to a physical or mental disability as defined in law and not otherwise accommodated
    • Travel while on official business of the governing board or another state or local agency.
  • Teleconferencing is available under these rules where one of the following circumstances applies:
    • The member notifies the governing board at the earliest opportunity possible, up to the start of a regular meeting, for just cause up to twice per calendar year
    • The member requests to participate in the meeting remotely due to emergency circumstances and the governing board takes action to approve the request.
    • A general description of an item generally need not exceed 20 words (no need to disclose medical diagnosis or disability, or any personal medical information that is already exempt under existing law
• State Board of Education Meeting The State Board of Education (SBE) met on September 14 and 15, 2022, and the agenda included two appeals of charter petition denials. The first was for Caliber: High School (CHS). The second was for Mayacamas Charter Middle School (MCMS). The SBE took action on both. Video of both days is available at SBE Meeting Webcasts. Item 9 for CHS occurred on September 14 and Items 11 and 12 for MCMS were on September 15.

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Fiscal Hot Topics

• Charter 20 Day Attendance Report Charter schools must complete the 20 Day Report in order to receive the charter school special advance apportionment. This is done pursuant to Education Code (EC) 47652 and in conjunction with the Pupil Estimates for New or Significantly Expanding Charters (PENSEC) report. The report is due to the California Department of Education (CDE) by October 31, 2022. This form has multiple layers of approvals which must all be completed by October 31.
• Unaudited Actuals Reporting unaudited actuals is the process of closing out the previous fiscal year accounts and preparing a report to submit for auditing. Charter schools that do not report in the Standardized Account Code Structure (SACS) format must use the Alternative Form. Unaudited actuals must be completed by charter schools and submitted to their authorizing agencies by September 15, 2022. Authorizers then review and need to submit the forms to their county offices for review, who will then submit the forms to the CDE by October 15, 2022.

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Additional Resources

• 2022–23 Charter School Authorizer Connection Workshops The San Diego COE, San Bernardino COE, and Fresno COE have collaborated to create a series of trainings for authorizers. Visit 2022–23 Charter School Authorizer Connection Workshop Registration to register and for more information.

• Annual Report and Site Visit Resources CASI’s April 2022 Quarterly Regional Training focused on annual site visits and reports. For comprehensive resources from CASI subgrantees Santa Clara COE and the California Charter Authorizing Professionals (CCAP) , please visit the CASI April Quarterly Regional Training Resources web page.

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Q&A from Previous Charter Chats and CASI Email

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Q&A from the September Charter Chat

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Return to Monthly Charter Chats

Return to Charter Authorizer Support Initiative