Date: 11-13-2017
This month, state officials are asking citizens to review and make suggestions on the proposed regulations for charter schools that will open in Kentucky for the first time.
Written comments on the proposed regulations will be accepted through Nov. 30. The proposed regulations on how charter schools would be opened and closed and operated can be found at education.ky.gov/districts/legal/Pages/KDE-Public-Hearing-Information.aspx
Among many details, the regulations address student applications and enrollment, and how a traditional public school can be converted to a charter school; and the financial solvency of a charter school, the duties of the board of directors and the school’s appeal process. The regulations clarify that a charter school can not be a for-profit organization or one that is organized for religious purposes.
Public charter school officials will enter into a charter, or contract, with a local public school board or the Lexington or Louisville mayor’s office. They will have to follow the same health, safety, civil rights, and disability rights requirements as all public schools.
A public hearing on the proposed administrative regulations will be held at 10 a.m. Nov. 21, at the Kentucky Department of Education headquarters, 300 Sower Blvd, Room 116, Frankfort. People interested in speaking must notify the Kentucky Department of Education in writing by 5 workdays prior to the hearing.
People can send written notification that they want to be heard at the public hearing or send written comments on the proposed administrative regulation to Kevin C. Brown, Associate Commissioner and General Counsel, Kentucky Department of Education, 300 Sower Blvd, 5th Floor, Frankfort, KY 40601, or email kevin.brown@education.ky.gov.
After the public comment period has ended, the Kentucky Board of Education can make changes to the regulations based on the public’s suggestions. Once the regulations are finalized by Kentucky Board of Education they will be reviewed by the legislature’s Administrative Regulations Review Subcommittee. Also, the education committees in both chambers of the General Assembly will have 30 days to review them, Earl Simms, director of charter schools for the Kentucky Department of Education, said Thursday.
When regulations are in place in early 2018, groups who want to open charter schools can submit applications to local school boards or the mayor’s offices of Lexington and Louisville. Denials of applications can be appealed to the state board of education.
Kentucky’s first charter schools are expected to open in the 2018-2019 school year.
Groups considering opening charter schools in Kentucky have been quiet so far. But at public meetings, officials from the Model Laboratory School at Eastern Kentucky University at Richmond have discussed the possibility of converting the preschool through 12th grade semi-private school into a charter school. At this point, officials have announced no firm plans.
By Valarie Honeycutt Spears
Lexington Herald-Leader
