Arkansas

Arkansas law provides that an unlimited number of conversion charter schools may exist. Arkansas law provides that the number of open enrollment charters that are allowed automatically increases by five each time the number of schools comes within two slots of the cap, which is initially set at 24.
The law provides that an open enrollment charter school may not open in the service area of a public school district administratively reorganized under state law until after the third year of the administrative reorganization.

Arkansas law allows new start-ups and public school conversions.

Arkansas law requires conversion charter schools to be approved by the local school board and the state department of education. It allows new start-up charter school applications (known as open enrollment charter schools in the state) to be reviewed by the local school board prior to review by the state department of education. However, it provides that the local school board’s approval or denial has no binding effect on the state department’s decision.
The law allows a charter applicant, public charter school, and affected school district to submit in writing a request that the state board review the final decision by the department. The law provides that the state board of education may exercise a right of review of a charter determination made by the department on a motion approved by a majority vote. If the state board votes to review a final decision made by the department, the state board may decide by majority vote of the quorum to affirm the decision of the department, take other lawful action on the public charter, or request additional information from the department, public charter school, public charter school applicant, or affected school district.

Arkansas law requires the state department of education to conduct an annual evaluation of all open-enrollment charter schools, with core elements detailed including student scores, attendance, grades, discipline incidents, socioeconomic data, parent and student satisfaction, and compliance with reporting requirements.
Arkansas law requires the authorizer to report to the General Assembly each biennium and to the House Interim Committee on Education and the Senate Interim Committee on Education during the interim between regular sessions of the General Assembly: the status of the open-enrollment public charter school programs and a summary of the aurhotizing activities in the preceding year, including without limitation the number and type of charters approved, dnied, and amended.

The ability of the state department of education to continue authorizing can be removed by the Arkansas legislature and governor (the entities that gave it that authority).

Arkansas law includes a small number of the model law's provisions for adequate authorizer funding. State law requires all state agency expenditures, including those by the state department of education (the state’s authorizer), to be publicly reported on a state website.

Arkansas law and regulation include details regarding petition application contents and processes for all schools. They also include additional application elements specific to conversion schools and replications.
Arkansas law provides detailed timelines regarding the core aspects of the charter application, review, and decision-making process, including application requirements, approval criteria, an in-person interview, and a public meeting.

Arkansas law requires that decisions regarding approvals must be made in a public meeting and that denials of charter applications must be in writing and include reasons for such disapproval. It requires decisions about open enrollment charter schools to involve a hearing with the state department, including in-person testimony and questions.

Arkansas law requires that the charter must be in the form of a written contract signed by the state commissioner of education and the chief operating officer of the charter school, but there is no requirement that the charter school governing board sign it.
Arkansas law includes a long list of charter contract contents focused on school responsibilities, but nothing regarding roles and responsibilities of the authorizer.

Arkansas law specifies that the charter contract provides that the continuation or renewal of the charter is contingent on acceptable student performance on assessment instruments adopted by the state board and on compliance with any accountability provisions specified within the charter. It also provides that the charter contract must establish the level of student performance that is considered acceptable for continuance and renewal, but it does not define academic and operational performance expectations by which the school will be judged based on a performance framework with a minimum set of essential measures and metrics.

Arkansas law provides that the initial term of a charter is five years.

Arkansas law and regulations require that open-enrollment charter schools submit their scores for all students enrolled for standardized assessments to the state department of education within ten calendar days of the close of the fourth quarter of each school year. They also require the state department to conduct an annual evaluation of all charter schools, with core elements detailed including student scores, attendance, grades, discipline incidents, socioeconomic data, parent and student satisfaction, on-site monitoring, and other terms of the school’s charter.
Arkansas law provides that charter schools are subject to the same auditing and accounting requirements as any other public school district, including an annual fiscal audit.

Arkansas law and regulation allow authorizers to conduct or require oversight activities.

While the law does not require authorizers to produce and publish annual school performance reports aligned with the performance framework set forth in each charter, it does require each charter school to provide an annual report to parents, the community, and the authorizer.

Arkansas law provides the authorizer with the authority to require charter schools to appear before it to discuss the results of the state department's annual evaluation and to present further information as needed. It requires the authorizer to notify the charter school of any concerns and allows schools to request a hearing on these concerns. It also provides the authorizer with the authority to modify a charter, place it on probation, revoke, or deny renewal.

Arkansas law requires the state department of education to conduct an annual evaluation of all charter schools, with core elements detailed including student scores, attendance, grades, discipline incidents, socioeconomic data, parent and student satisfaction, compliance with statutory reporting requirements, and other terms of the school’s charter.
Arkansas regulations state that each charter school must apply for renewal of its charter using a form and timeline prescribed by the state department of education's charter school office.

Arkansas law and regulations outline a transparent process for review and renewal and provide criteria for non-renewal. In addition, they require each charter school to establish the level of student performance that is considered acceptable for continuation or renewal.

Arkansas law provides that the terms of the renewal may be one year or multi-year, allowing up to five years for conversion charter schools and up to 20 years for open enrollment charter schools.

Arkansas law allows authorizers to revoke or deny renewal of a charter school and specifies that any decision made by an authorizer regarding the status of a school must be grounded in the best interest of students.

Arkansas law requires the authorizer to notify via certified mail of alleged violations of the school’s charter contract. As provided by Arkansas law, due process procedures include an opportunity for a hearing to the persons operating the charter school and to the parents of students enrolled in the school.

Arkansas law requires that all charter renewal, non-renewal, and revocation decisions be made in a public meeting, with the state board stating reasons for non-renewals and revocations in writing.

Arkansas law and regulation detail information regarding school non-renewal or revocation issues in relation to disbursement of assets, parent notification, and student and record transitions.

Arkansas law is silent regarding these arrangements. There is nothing explicit in law that prevents schools from contracting with educational service providers to operate a school nor guides the authorizer in their review of such provisions.

Kansas law provides that charter schools operate as an “independent public school” within a school district, with the governance structure as defined in their charter contract with the local school board. However, statute does not provide for any level of fiscal or legal autonomy, nor does it require an independent board to govern the school.

Arkansas law requires open enrollment charter schools to be open to all students in the state and conversion charter schools to be open to all students in the district.
Arkansas law prohibits discrimination in admissions policy.

State law provides that prior year students who wish to continue in attendance at their open enrollment charter school do not have to go through the application and lottery process.

Arkansas law allows open enrollment schools to provide an enrollment preference for children of the founding members and children of full-time employees and teachers (although these cannot exceed 10% of the school’s enrollment) and siblings of children in the school. It does not require enrollment preferences for previously enrolled students within conversion charter schools.

It also allows a weighted lottery to be used when necessary to comply with legally required desegregation efforts.

Arkansas law requires charter schools to use a random anonymous student selection method if interest exceeds capacity.

Arkansas law does not grant any automatic exemptions. Instead, it requires each charter application to identify specific exemptions desired and request those as part of the application process, including any requested exemptions to teacher certification requirements.

Arkansas allows (but does not require) collective bargaining for public school teachers. There are 12 items for which collective bargaining is permitted (but not required) for those teachers in Arkansas: wages, insurance or fringe benefits, pension and retirement benefits, length of preparation periods, terms and conditions of employment, length of the school year, extracurricular duties, leave, layoffs, dismissal, evaluation process or instruments, and grievance procedures. No items are expressly excluded from bargaining.Prior to the Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME decision, Arkansas state law prohibited unions from charging agency fees to non-union members of any collective bargaining unit. Therefore, the Supreme Court’s decision did not have any direct effect on unions in the state.
Arkansas law provides that open-enrollment charter schools are exempt from participation in school district personnel policies, but conversion charter schools are bound by school district personnel policies. The charter statute is silent on collective bargaining.
Exclusive representation for a public agency’s collective bargaining unit in Arkansas is neither granted nor denied under state labor law. Generally, courts have held that in states without laws or without comprehensive laws, public employers have the authority to grant recognition to public sector unions and to enter into legally enforceable collective bargaining agreements covering employees.

Arkansas law makes it clear that each charter contract covers a single school site. However, it allows high-performing open enrollment charter schools to petition the authorizer for licenses to establish additional sites on existing charter contracts, with independent fiscal and academic accountability for each site.

Arkansas law is silent about charter eligibility and access.

Arkansas law provides that districts are the LEAs for special education purposes for conversion charter schools and that charter schools are the LEAs for special education purposes for open enrollment charter schools. It also allows both types of charter schools to apply for additional categorical special education funds to help cover low-incident, high-cost special education services.
While it does not explicitly identify special education funding, Arkansas law does designate the state as responsible for allocating any designated funding to public charter schools.

Per Arkansas law, a conversion charter school receives funds equal to the amount apportioned by the district from state and local revenue per average daily membership.
Per Arkansas law, an open enrollment charter school receives funds equal to the amount that a public school would receive, as well as any other funding that the public charter school is entitled to receive under law. In reality, traditional districts are allowed to levy mileages (i.e., property taxes) that open enrollment schools don’t have access to.

In reference to transportation, Arkansas law provides charter schools the same per pupil base amount for transportation as public school districts.

In a recent national study of charter school funding (University of Arkansas, Charter School Funding: Inequity Expands, 2014), Arkansas charter schools were receiving on average $7,451 per pupil in public funds, while traditional public schools would have received $11,441 for those students. As a result, the state's charter schools were receiving $3,990 per pupil - or 34.8% - less than what the traditional public schools would have received for those students. This figure includes all sources of funding, and analysis reveals significant inequities for both operational and capital funding (see component #19 for information on capital issues).

Arkansas law creates the open enrollment public charter school facilities funding aid program and authorizes up to $20 million in funding to this program. The state is currently providing $7,575,000 to this program.
Arkansas law creates an open enrollment public charter school capital grant program. However, the state has not provided funding to this program.

Arkansas law requires each school district to annually identify all unused or underutilized facilities to the Arkansas Department of Education. The law allows public charter schools to lease or purchase a school district’s unused or underutilized facilities for fair-market value. It gives public charter schools a right of first refusal to purchase for fair-market value a facility that a district intends to sell. It also gives the school district a right of first refusal to purchase a facility back if the charter school ceases to use the facility.

Arkansas law creates an open enrollment public charter school facilities loan fund. However, the state has not provided funding to this program.

Arkansas law provides that charter schools are eligible to access financing through the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.

Arkansas law provides that a school district or public charter school may enter into public-private partnerships whereby the school district or public charter school enters into a lease-purchase agreement for the acquisition or construction of a school building or related facilities built or acquired by the private entities with facilities bonds exempt from federal taxes.

Arkansas law requires certified staff within open enrollment and conversion charter schools to participate in the state retirement system.

Arkansas law includes a small number of the model law’s provisions for full-time virtual charter schools. The law provides that full-time virtual charter schools that serve students from more than one district may only be approved by the state department of education.