(a)Application deadline. For admission to a charter
school, a charter holder shall:
(1)require the applicant to complete
and submit a common application form prescribed by the commissioner
of education, referred to as the Texas Charter School Admission Application,
beginning in the 2020-2021 school year. The application must be submitted
not later than a reasonable deadline the charter holder establishes.
(A)The common application form shall be posted on
the Texas Education Agency (TEA) website, and the form and all associated
fields shall be posted on each open-enrollment charter school's website
to be used by an applicant for admission to an open-enrollment charter
school campus.
(B)The common application form and the student admission
and enrollment policy under subsection (d) or (e) of this section,
including the policies and procedures for admission, lotteries, enrollment,
student waitlists, withdrawals, reenrollment, and transfers, shall
be publicly accessible and easily available on the charter school's
website. A charter school must make available the common application
form and may not require the use of an account, email, password, or
other condition as the sole means to access the information or the
common application form. A charter school may also print copies of
the common application form and make them available for use during
the admission process.
(C)An open-enrollment charter school may not alter
the form, unless to signify specific criteria that may not apply to
their campus as permitted by TEA, or add any additional criteria,
questions, statements, advertisements, or solicitations or require
any conditions for a person to access the form. An open-enrollment
charter school may not sell, provide, or ask an applicant to agree
to share or have the charter school share any student information
provided in the application to any person or entity other than TEA;
[(1)require the applicant to complete
and submit an application not later than a reasonable deadline the
charter holder establishes; and]
(2)on receipt of more acceptable applications for
admission under this section than available positions in the school:
(A)except as permitted by subsection (b) of this section,
fill the available positions by lottery; or
(B)subject to subsection (d) [(c)]
of this section, fill the available positions in accordance with
the open-enrollment charter school's approved student admission and
enrollment policy; and [the order in which all timely applications
were received.]
(3)create and manage a waitlist,
as described in subsection (e) of this section, for applicants who
are not admitted after all available positions in the charter school
have been filled.
(b)Lottery exemption. The charter holder may exempt
students from the lottery required by subsection (d) [(a)
] of this section to the extent this is consistent with the
definition of a "public charter school" under the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as reauthorized under the Every
Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), as interpreted by the United States Department
of Education (USDE), including but not limited to, siblings of students
already admitted to or attending the same charter school; children
of a charter school's founders, teachers and staff, and children of
employees in a work-site charter school (so long as the total number
of students allowed under this exemption does not exceed 10% of the
school's total enrollment) [No Child Left Behind Act of
2001, P.L. 107-110, §5210 (NCLB), as interpreted by the United
States Department of Education (USDE)].
(c)Newspaper publication. To the extent this is consistent
with the definition of a "public charter school" under ESEA as
reauthorized under ESSA [the NCLB] , as interpreted
by the USDE, a charter holder may fill applications for admission
under subsection (a)(1) [(a)(2)(B)] of this
section only if it published a notice of the opportunity to apply
for admission to the charter school. At a minimum, a [A]
notice published under this subsection must:
(1)state the application deadline; and
(2)be published in a newspaper of general circulation
in the community in which the school is located not later than the
seventh day before the application deadline. For purposes of this
chapter, a newspaper of general circulation is defined as one that
has more than a minimum number of subscribers among a particular geographic
region, which [that] has a diverse subscribership,
and that publishes some news items of general interest to the community.
(d)Student admission and enrollment. Except as provided
by this section, the governing body of the charter holder must adopt
a student admission and enrollment policy that:
(1)unless as provided in subsection (f) of this
section, prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex; national
origin; ethnicity; religion; disability; academic, artistic, or athletic
ability; or the district the child would otherwise attend under state
law; [and]
(2)specifies any type of non-discriminatory enrollment
criteria to be used at each charter school operated by the charter
holder. Such non-discriminatory enrollment criteria may make the student
ineligible for enrollment based on a history of a criminal offense,
a juvenile court adjudication, or discipline problems under Texas
Education Code (TEC), Chapter 37, Subchapter A, documented as provided
by local policy; and [.]
(3)specifies whether students will
be admitted to the charter school campus by lottery or on a first
come, first served basis if the application is published in a newspaper
of general circulation in the community in which the school is located
not later than the seventh day before the application deadline, as
described in TEC, §12.117.
(e)Waitlist. Charter holders required
to create and maintain a waitlist as a result of receiving more acceptable
applications for admission than available positions at the school
shall manage and update the student waitlist.
(1)Each school year, the following information must
be maintained at the campus level for reporting to TEA no later than
the last Friday in October of each school year:
(A)the total number of students on the waitlist;
(B)the number of students on the waitlist disaggregated
by grade level; and
(C)information necessary to identify each student,
as specified in TEC, §12.1174 (Enrollment and Waiting List Report).
(2)The waitlist of each charter school campus shall
be managed according to that charter holder's policy, which must include
the following criteria.
(A)The names of eligible students with completed applications
who apply and are not admitted shall be added to the end of the waitlist
in the order in which the applications are received.
(B)As spaces become available at the charter school
campus during the school year, the school must consult its campus
waitlist and select a new student for enrollment in the order that
students appear on the list.
(C)The charter school shall review each campus waitlist
no less than every 60 days and eliminate duplicate entries and the
names of students who have been admitted to the charter school.
(3)An open-enrollment charter school may not sell,
provide, or ask a student to agree to share any student information
on the waitlist with any person or entity other than TEA.
(f)[(e)] Student admission and
enrollment at charter schools specializing in performing arts. In
accordance with [the] TEC, §12.111 and §12.1171,
a charter school specializing in performing arts, as defined in this
subsection, may adopt a student admission and enrollment policy that
complies with this subsection in lieu of compliance with subsections
(a)-(d) of this section.
(1)A charter school specializing in performing arts
as used in this subsection means a school whose open-enrollment charter
includes an educational program that, in addition to the required
academic curriculum, has an emphasis in one or more of the performing
arts, which include music, theatre, and dance. A program with an emphasis
in the performing arts may include the following components:
(A)a core academic curriculum that is integrated with
performing arts instruction;
(B)a wider array of performing arts courses than are
typically offered at public schools;
(C)frequent opportunities for students to demonstrate
their artistic talents;
(D)cooperative programs with other organizations or
individuals in the performing arts community; or
(E)other innovative methods for offering performing
arts learning opportunities.
(2)To the extent this is consistent with the definition
of a "public charter school" as defined in ESEA as reauthorized
under ESSA [under the NCLB] , as interpreted by the
USDE, the governing body of a charter holder that operates a charter
school specializing in performing arts must require the applicant
to complete and submit a common admission application form as described
in subsection (a)(1) of this section and may adopt an admission
policy that requires a student to demonstrate an interest or ability
in the performing arts or to audition for admission to the school.
(3)The governing body of a charter holder that operates
a charter school specializing in performing arts must adopt a student
admission and enrollment policy that prohibits discrimination on the
basis of sex, national origin, ethnicity, religion, disability, academic
or athletic ability, or the district the child would otherwise attend
under state law.
(4)The governing body of a charter holder that operates
a charter school specializing in performing arts must adopt a student
admission and enrollment policy that specifies any type of non-discriminatory
enrollment criteria to be used at the charter school. Such non-discriminatory
enrollment criteria may make the student ineligible for enrollment
based on a history of a criminal offense, a juvenile court adjudication,
or discipline problems under TEC, Chapter 37, Subchapter A, documented
as provided by local policy.
(g)[(f)] Maximum enrollment.
Total enrollment shall not exceed the maximum number of students approved
in the open-enrollment charter. A charter school may establish
a primary and secondary boundary. Students who reside outside the
primary geographic boundary stated in the open-enrollment charter
shall not be admitted to the charter school until all eligible applicants
that reside within the primary boundary and have submitted a timely
application have been enrolled. Then, if the open-enrollment charter
so provides for a secondary boundary, the charter holder may admit
students who reside within the secondary boundary to the charter school
in accordance with the terms of the open-enrollment charter.
The agency certifies that legal counsel has reviewed
the proposal and found it to be within the state agency's legal authority
to adopt.
Filed
with the Office of the Secretary of State on March 4, 2024
TRD-202400954 Cristina De La Fuente-Valadez
Director, Rulemaking
Texas Education Agency
Earliest possible
date of adoption: April 14, 2024
For further information, please call: (512) 475-1497
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