Submitted by acollier on
By Alison Collier
Over the past few weeks, FOCUS has received many phone calls from groups interested in applying for a new charter school in DC. With the application deadline from the DC Public Charter School Board fast approaching (applications are due March 1st, 2013), we thought it would be helpful to provide our insight about the process.
Read the application guidelines from the Public Charter School Board
The application requires a detailed blueprint of your proposed school, communicated via 150 pages plus appendices. It is not easy!
Assemble a group of people (the “founding group”) with expertise in all areas you will need to run a school and who are committed to starting a school with you
Remember that in addition to educating students, charter schools are independently governed 501c3 non-profit organizations. You should have people on your team with recent, relevant experience in teaching, curriculum development, business, operations, financial, legal, special education, English Language Learners, real estate, community engagement, and more.
Most successful founding groups whose charter applications are approved spend 3-6 months or more designing their school and writing their application. Just as one person can’t run a school alone, one person cannot apply alone – it requires a team of at least 5-7 people dedicating many hours of their lives to designing the school and writing the application.
Contact FOCUS!
We have been helping founding groups with this process since 2003, and have a range of support we can offer. Almost every school that has been chartered since 2003 has used some or all of our services, including our application consulting services, school design workshops, and “Guide to Starting a Public Charter School in the District of Columbia.”
Don’t be afraid to take your time
Often groups will come to us with the intent to submit their application 4-6 weeks later. What we, and those groups, have found is that it is essential to have enough time to fully develop a strong school model and application. Many groups decide to use a full year to develop their founding group and their school. A weak application would be a weak school and would not be granted a charter. More importantly, it would not provide a quality educational option for DC students.
FOCUS will offer informational sessions on starting a charter school this spring, followed by a series of school design workshops in the summer of 2013. Email focus@focusdc.org to be added to our charter startup listserv and be notified of upcoming events.