Waivers
School District Waivers
Act 1240 of 2015 and Act 815 of 2019 allow a school district to petition the State Board of Education for some or all of the waivers granted to an open-enrollment public charter school.
For more information, go to the School District Waivers page. Please note that the School District Waiver process is no longer handled by the Charter Office and has moved to the Legal Services Office.
Charter School Waivers
Any revision or amendment to an open-enrollment or district conversion charter may only be made with the approval of the authorizer. Therefore, charter schools are not eligible for District 1240 waivers granted by the State Board of Education. To request waivers that were not granted in the original or renewal application, a charter school must submit an amendment request.
Charter School Amendment Request Process
The charter school must submit an amendment request and any additional requirements to DESE no later than thirty-five (35) days prior to the date of the authorizer meeting at which the request will be heard. Open-enrollment charter schools must also contemporaneously send a copy of the request to the superintendent of the local school district where the public charter is located. Amendment requests should be emailed to ade.charterschools@arkansas.gov.
- The submitted amendment request is reviewed by a DESE internal committee and feedback is provided to the charter school.
- If needed, the charter school updates the amendment request to address any questions or concerns from the internal review committee and then resubmits the amendment request to DESE.
- The amendment request in placed on the Charter Authorizing Panel agenda for consideration.
- Representatives from the charter school present the amendment request during the Charter Authorizing Panel meeting.
- The charter school is provided a written response regarding the decision of the Charter Authorizing Panel regarding the amendment request.
- The decision of the Charter Authorizing Panel is placed on the State Board of Education agenda for consideration to review or not review. If the State Board votes to review the Charter Authorizing Panel’s decision, a hearing will be scheduled for the next State Board meeting to review the amendment request. If the State Board votes to not review the Charter Authorizing Panel’s decision, then the decision is final and no further action is taken.
- The charter school is provided a written response regarding the decision of the State Board of Education regarding the amendment request.
For more information, please contact:
Brooke McCain, Coordinator of Special Programs
Division of Elementary and Secondary Education
Public School Accountability
Four Capitol Mall, Box 26
Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: 501-682-4379
Email: Brooke.McCain@ade.arkansas.gov