An Act To Improve Maine's Charter School Laws
Maine Legislature, Session 126, LD 0439
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: MASON, JOHNSON, LANGLEY
Amends: 20-A MRSA §2407, 20-A MRSA §2413

Legislative Document 
No. 439 
S.P. 171 
In Senate, February 14, 2013 
An Act To Improve Maine's Charter School Laws 
Submitted by the Department of Education pursuant to Joint Rule 204. 
Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed. 
DAREK M. GRANT 
Secretary of the Senate 
Presented by Senator MASON of Androscoggin. 
Cosponsored by Representative JOHNSON of Greenville and 
Senator: LANGLEY of Hancock. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  20-A MRSA §2407, sub-§5, as enacted by PL 2011, c. 414, §5, is 
amended to read: 
5.  Approval; denial.  No later than 90 days after the deadline set by the authorizer 
for the filing of an application applications, an authorizer shall decide to approve or deny 
the render a decision on each application.  The authorizer shall make and announce all 
charter approval or denial decisions in a meeting open to the public. 
A.  An approval decision may include, if appropriate, reasonable conditions that the 
applicant must meet before a charter contract may be executed. 
B.  If the authorizer denies an application, the authorizer shall clearly state, for public 
record, its reasons for denial.  An applicant may subsequently reapply to that 
authorizer or apply to any other authorizer in the State. 
C.  Within 10 days of taking action to approve or deny rendering a decision on an 
application, the authorizer shall report to the commissioner the action it has taken.  
The authorizer shall provide a copy of the report to the applicant at the same time that 
the report is submitted to the commissioner. 
D.  The commissioner shall register the charters approved by all chartering authorities 
in chronological order by date of approval. 
E.  An approved application may not serve as a school's charter contract nor may it be 
incorporated by reference into the charter contract. 
F.  A decision on an application must be conveyed in writing to the applicant.  A 
decision may grant approval or conditional approval, request resubmission or reject 
the application and must include written reasons for the decisions.  A request for 
resubmission must include specific directions to the applicant regarding what the 
authorizer expects from the applicant and what process will be followed by the 
authorizer following resubmission of the application. 
Sec. 2.  20-A MRSA §2413, sub-§2, ¶A, as amended by PL 2011, c. 679, §2, is 
further amended to read: 
A.  For each public charter school student, the school administrative unit in which the 
student resides must forward the per-pupil allocation to the public charter school 
attended by the student as follows. 
(1)  The per-pupil allocation amount is the EPS per-pupil rate for the school 
administrative unit in which the student resides, as calculated pursuant to section 
15676, based on the student’s grade level and adjusted as appropriate for 
economic disadvantage and limited English proficiency pursuant to section 
15675, subsections 1 and 2.  Debt service and capital outlays may not be included 
in the calculation of these per-pupil allocations.  The department shall adopt rules 
governing how to calculate these per-pupil allocations, including those for career 
and technical education programs, targeted funds for assessment technology and 
kindergarten to grade 2 programs. 
(2)  For students attending public charter schools, the school administrative unit 
of residence shall forward the per-pupil allocations described in subparagraph (1) 
directly to the public charter school attended.  These per-pupil allocations must 
be forwarded to each public charter school on a quarterly basis, as follows.  For 
each fiscal year, allocations must be made in quarterly payments on September 
1st, December 1st, March 1st and June 1st.  The September payment and 
December payments must be based on the identity and number of students 
enrolled or anticipated to be enrolled in the public charter school at the opening 
of school for that school year, which. The number of students may not exceed the 
maximum enrollment approved in the charter contract for that year unless a 
waiver is obtained from the authorizer.  In February of the school year, if the 
number of students is higher or lower than the number of students at the 
beginning of the school year, adjustments must be made in the June payment, 
with 50% of the annual per-pupil allocation added for additional students or 
subtracted if the total number of students is lower.  The March and June 
payments must be based on the identity and number of students enrolled in the 
public charter school on February 1st. 
(3)  For transportation expenses, the average per-pupil expense in each school 
administrative unit of residence must be calculated and an amount equal to a 
proportion, up to but not more than 100%, of that per-pupil allocation amount 
must be forwarded to the public charter school attended on the same basis as the 
per-pupil allocations for operating funds.  The percentage of that per-pupil 
expense must be determined by the authorizer of the public charter school and 
must be based on the cost of transportation services provided by the public 
charter school to the student. 
(4)  The department shall pay to the public charter school any additional 
allocation assigned to the public charter school for gifted and talented students 
pursuant to section 15681-A, subsection 5 in the year in which the allocation is 
assigned. 
A school administrative unit is not required to send funds to a public charter school 
for a student enrolled in the public charter school's preschool or prekindergarten 
program if the school administrative unit of the student's residence does not offer that 
program to its own residents. 
SUMMARY 
This bill makes changes to the public charter school approval and funding processes.  
It provides that the 90-day deadline for an authorizer to make decisions on public charter 
school applications runs from the deadline for submission of all applications, not from the 
date that each application is submitted.  It requires an authorizer to make its expectations 
of the applicant clear when requesting resubmission of an application.  It allows the 
public charter school application to be incorporated by reference into the charter contract. 
With regard to funding of public charter schools, the bill changes the manner of 
adjusting payments from noncharter public schools to public charter schools when 
students move into or out of public charter schools after the beginning of the school year.  
Under current law, only the last payment from the noncharter public school in June is 
adjusted.  This bill requires adjustment of the March and June payments to avoid 
potential overpayments to a public charter school when students leave the public charter 
school in the first half of the school year.