(A)(1) An applicant shall submit a letter of intent at least ninety days before submitting an application to the board of trustees or area commission from which it is seeking sponsorship and a copy to the South Carolina Department of Education.
(2) An applicant shall submit the application to the board of trustees or area commission from which it is seeking sponsorship and one copy to the South Carolina Department of Education. In the case of the South Carolina Public Charter School District or a public or independent institution of higher learning sponsor, the applicant shall provide notice of the application to the local school board of trustees in which the charter school will be located for informational purposes only. The school district or the public or independent institution of higher learning from which the applicant is seeking sponsorship may request clarifying information from the applicant. The State Department of Education shall provide guidance on compliance to both sponsors and applicants.
(3) The applicant shall notify the local delegation of a county in which a proposed charter school is to be located upon submission of a charter school application and also shall provide a copy of the charter school application upon request by a member of the local delegation.
(B) The board of trustees or area commission from which the applicant is seeking sponsorship shall rule on the application for a charter school in a public hearing, upon reasonable public notice, within ninety days after receiving the application. If there is no ruling within ninety days, the application is considered approved. Once the application has been approved by the board of trustees or area commission, the charter school may open at the beginning of the following year. However, before a charter school may open, the State Department of Education shall verify the accuracy of the financial data for the school within forty-five days after approval.
(C) A board of trustees or area commission shall deny an application only if the application does not meet the requirements specified in Section 59-40-50 or 59-40-60, fails to meet the spirit and intent of this chapter, or adversely affects, as defined in regulation, the other students in the district in which the charter school is to be located, or if, based on the totality of information provided by the applicant, the board of trustees or area commission determines that the applicant has failed to demonstrate a substantial likelihood that it has the capacity to establish a viable school based on national industry standards of quality charter school authorization. It shall provide, within ten days, a written explanation of the reasons for denial, citing specific standards related to provisions of Section 59-40-50 or 59-40-60 that the application violates. This written explanation immediately must be sent to the charter committee and filed with the State Board of Education.
(D) In the event that the racial composition of an applicant's or charter school's enrollment differs from the enrollment of the local school district in which the charter school is to be located or the targeted student population of the local school district by more than twenty percent, despite its best efforts, the board of trustees or area commission from which the applicant is seeking sponsorship shall consider the applicant's or the charter school's recruitment efforts and racial composition of the applicant pool in determining whether the applicant or charter school is operating in a nondiscriminatory manner. A finding by the board of trustees or area commission that the applicant or charter school is operating in a racially discriminatory manner justifies the denial of a charter school application or the revocation of a charter as provided in this section or in Section 59-40-110, as may be applicable. A finding by the board of trustees or area commission that the applicant is not operating in a racially discriminatory manner justifies approval of the charter without regard to the racial percentage requirement if the application is acceptable in all other aspects.
(E) If the board of trustees or area commission from which the applicant is seeking sponsorship denies a charter school application, the charter applicant may appeal the denial to the Administrative Law Court pursuant to Section 59-40-90.
(F) If the board of trustees or area commission approves the application, it becomes the charter school's sponsor and shall sign the approved application. The sponsor shall submit a copy of the charter contract to the State Board of Education.
(G) If a local school board of trustees has information that an approved application by the South Carolina Public Charter School District or a public or independent institution of higher learning sponsor adversely affects the other students in its district, as defined in regulation, or that the approval of the application fails to meet the spirit and intent of this chapter, the local school board of trustees may appeal the granting of the charter to the Administrative Law Court. The Administrative Law Court, within forty-five days, may affirm or reverse the application for action by the South Carolina Public Charter School District or the public or independent institution of higher learning in accordance with an order of the state board.
HISTORY: 1996 Act No. 447, Section 2; 2002 Act No. 341, Section 1; 2006 Act No. 274, Section 1, eff May 3, 2006; 2008 Act No. 239, Sections 3, 4, 5, eff May 21, 2008; 2012 Act No. 164, Section 8, eff May 14, 2012; 2014 Act No. 288 (H.3853), Section 4, eff June 12, 2014.
Effect of Amendment
The 2006 amendment rewrote this section.
The 2008 amendment, in paragraph (A)(5), substituted "Administrative Law Court" for "State Board of Education" at the end of the last sentence; in subsection (E), substituted "Administrative Law Court" for "State Board of Education"; in subsection (G), substituted "Administrative Law Court" for "State Board of Education" in the first sentence and for "state board" in the second sentence, and deleted the last sentence which directed the State Board of Education to promulgate regulations for procedures on appeal.
The 2012 amendment rewrote the section.
2014 Act No. 288, Section 4, rewrote subsections (A), (B), and (C).