The 160-page education bill signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott includes several little-discussed provisions whose effects will be felt in pockets of Florida’s charter school world.
Among them: The Department of Education will be required to strip academically “high-performing” status from any charter school whose letter grade falls to a C.
That requirement was technically already on the books, but one C-rated school took the state to court and prevailed after it lost its high-performing designation.
The Educational Charter Foundation of Florida, which runs Imagine Schools at South Lake, argued an existing provision in the state’s high-performing charter statute created a conflict by implying some C-rated schools could keep the status:
(4) A high-performing charter school may not increase enrollment or expand grade levels following any school year in which it receives a school grade of “C” or below. If the charter school receives a school grade of “C” or below in any 2 years during the term of the charter awarded under subsection (2), the term of the charter may be modified by the sponsor and the charter school loses its high-performing charter school status until it regains that status under subsection (1).
If the state didn’t want C-rated charters to get the lower administrative fees, longer contract terms, and other perks that come with high-performing status, the First District Court of Appeal ruled that it should take that provision off the books, which was Scott and the Legislature have now done. HB 7029 repealed the provision, which legislative staff deemed “obsolete.”
Nearly 170 of Florida’s more than 650 charter schools are rated academically high-performing, which makes it easier for them to grow and replicate. To earn the label, they need to have high letter grades and mostly clean financial audits.
