An Act To Create Charter Programs within Existing Schools
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 0272
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: MARLEY

Legislative Document 
No. 272 
H.P.206 
House of Representatives, January 18,2007 
An Act To Create Charter Programs within Existing Schools 
Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed. 
Presented by Representative MARLEY of Portland. 
Primed on recyc led paper 
111~ 
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MllLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
CONCEPT DRAFT 
SUMMARY 
This bill is a concept draft pursuant to Joint Rule 208. 
The bill proposes to provide school administrative units with greater flexibility in 
meeting the needs of students by providing school boards with the authority to establish 
charter programs within existing schools in their own school administrative unit. The bill 
would allow school boards to approve the establishment of charter programs, a new type 
of public school program, to be a part of the school administrative unit's educational 
program. 
Charter programs would be created to offer students and parents more educational 
options to meet the diversity of learning needs of children within the school 
administrative unit. Charter programs would be open to all students equally, though they 
may specialize in serving a particular age group or a student population with specific 
needs. Legislation developed to establish the charter program concept would include, but 
would not be limited to, consideration of the following. 
1. The legislation would establish a pilot program that would permit up to 20 charter 
programs to be authorized during a 1 O-year period. 
2. The central purposes of establishing charter programs would be to expand learning 
opportunities for disengaged students who are underserved by the current educational 
system and to increase the likelihood that students will excel in a standards-based 
educational system. 
3. A school board may establish a charter program that includes, as its primary 
purpose, the intention to seek to expand learning opportunities for disengaged students 
who are underserved by the current educational programs within the school 
administrative unit. 
4. Students who attended a so-called priority school within the school administrative 
unit and who were part of one of the student subgroups, including students belonging to 
racial or ethnic minorities, economically disadvantaged students, students with 
disabilities and students with limited English proficiency, whose assessment scores 
resulted in the determination that the school failed to meet the adequate yearly progress 
provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 would receive first priority 
for placement in a charter program established in the school administrative unit. 
5. For the purposes of reporting student performance on standardized assessment 
tests in compliance with the system of learning results established in the Maine Revised 
Statutes, Title 20-A, section 6209 and in compliance with applicable federal statutes and 
regulations pertaining to student assessment as required by the federal No Child Left 
Behind Act of 2001, students placed in a charter program would be considered to be 
Page I - 123LR0364(Ol)-1 
enrolled in a separate school within the school administrative unit and their assessment 
scores would be reported accordingly. 
6. 
Charter program proposals may include proposals to establish or convert an 
existing program, including, but not limited to, one of the following types of schools or 
school programs: 
A. An alternative educational program operated by the school administrative unit; 
B. A gifted and talented student program; 
C. A school that is approved by the Commissioner of Education to carry out a shared 
service agreement to provide alternative education programs in accordance with Title 
20-A, section 2501; or 
D. An existing school that is approved by the Commissioner of Education to carry 
out a cooperative agreement to provide regional special education programs and 
support services in accordance with Title 20-A, section 7253. 
7. Teachers who teach in charter programs would be considered employees of the 
school administrative unit and would have the same collective bargaining rights and 
benefits, including health, retirement and other employee benefits, as other teachers 
employed by the school administrative unit. 
8. 
Funding for charter programs would be addressed as part of the Essential 
Programs and Services Funding Act and would be determined in the same manner as 
funding for other educational programs in the school administrative unit.