Minnesota’s public charter schools are held accountable by parents, authorizers and the state of Minnesota through a variety of ways and means.
As schools of choice, parents hold a public charter school accountable by having seats on the board of directors and having the ability to withdraw their children if the school does not perform.
An authorizer holds the public charter school accountable through a contract and ongoing monitoring and oversight. The authorizer has the power and responsibility to terminate the charter school contract if the school is not performing in terms of academic, financial or operational performance.
The state of Minnesota holds the public charter school accountable through ongoing reporting and compliance audits and also has the power to terminate a charter school contract for ongoing failure to perform or violation of law.
Public charter schools in fact have the highest level of accountability of any kind of public institution in the state of Minnesota because a charter schools can be closed down for failure to perform, financial mismanagement of repeated or major violations of the law.
The authorization of a charter must be in the form of a written contract signed by the authorizer and the board of directors of the charter school.
Click here to learn more about the charter contracting process.
A charter school must publish an annual report approved by its board of directors. The annual report must at least include information on school enrollment, student attrition, governance and management, staffing, finances, academic performance, operational performance, innovative practices and implementation, and future plans. The annual report must also include information on the implementation of professional development plan for persons in administrative, supervisory or instructional leadership roles who do not hold a valid administrative license.
The annual report must be distributed to the Commissioner of Education, the school’s authorizer, school employees, and parents and legal guardians of students enrolled in the school.
The annual report may be distributed by publication, mail or electronic means and must be posted on the school’s official web-site. The annual reports are public data under MN Statutes 13.
A charter school must submit an audit report to the Commissioner of Education and its authorizer by December 31 of each year. The report must include a copy of all charter school agreements for corporate management services.
If the annual report indicates material weakness exists in the financial reporting systems of the charter school, the school must submit a written report to the Commissioner of Education explaining how the material weakness will be resolved.
Charter schools are subject to and accountability for implementing state academic standards and charter school students are required to take all mandated state tests and assessments. Click here to access School Report Cards from the MN Department of Education.