Eastin recommends legislation clarifying the legal status of charter schools. Independent schools would be constituted and regulated pursuant to California's existing non-profit corporation law. Dependent schools, in contrast, would remain or become a legal arm of their sponsor district. As described below, the underlying legal status of a charter school, under Eastin's proposal, would largely control several related fiscal accountability and liability matters. The Department proposes that fiscally independent charter schools would be regulated by the State Attorney General as with all other non-profit corporations, plus any regulatory or oversight language included in the school's charter.
Current law leaves audit scope and process largely up to the terms of individual schools' charters.
The memo proposes that fiscally independent charter schools would be subject to more detailed audit requirements and that the terms of the audit requirements be included in the State Controller's Guide. Dependent charter schools would be included within the sponsor district's audit process. The amount received would no longer be a function of the revenue limit of the sponsoring district. Current charter law contains no upper or lower age limit for charter school students. In non-charter public schools, by comparison, students must be at least 5 years old by December 2 in order to be eligible for enrollment in Kindergarten.