NACSA Blog

NACSA Blog

Press Releases


Nevada Passes Legislation Creating State-Run District to Tackle Consistently Low-Performing Schools

Chicago, Ill. – Over the weekend, the Nevada legislature passed AB448, a significant piece of school reform legislation that will allow the state to transition its lowest-performing public schools to charter schools …


NACSA Says American Enterprise Institute Report on Charter School Application Process Goes too Far, Calls for Focus on Balanced Authorizing Practices

Chicago, Ill. – The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) released the following statement in response to the recommendations in a report on authorizer accountability released today by the American Enterprise …


Greater Collaboration between Charter Authorizers and Lenders Can Ease School Facility Financing Burden, Report Concludes

Chicago, Ill. – Today the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) released a joint report aimed at increasing conversation and understanding between lenders and …


Oklahoma Passes Comprehensive Charter School Reform

Unique combination of business groups, traditional schools and charter school advocates come together in the best interests for Oklahoma’s children Chicago, Ill. – Today the Oklahoma Legislature passed SB 782 , major …


National Association of Charter School Authorizers Voices Support for the Senate HELP Committee’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Reauthorization Bill

Chicago, Ill. – Today, members of the U.S. Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee reported out a bipartisan Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization bill to the full Senate. …


Charter School Authorizers Must Rebalance Accountability, Flexibility, and Support During the Pandemic

This guest blog was written by Miho Kubagawa, a Partner with New Schools Venture Fund. When schools closed in March, I naively assumed that the biggest challenge public schools would face this …


Message to the Charter School Authorizing Community from Karega Rausch, Interim President & CEO

To the Authorizing Community: Like so many of you it has taken me some time to process a range of emotions after seeing Black people being murdered, most visibly George Floyd and …


Authorizer Conversations: Joseph Escobedo on Virtual Site Visits and the Human Side of Authorizing

“When we talk about the human side, that was something I was not expecting. I was not expecting that I would need to provide emotional support to our charter leaders or that …


Supporting ELs, Students with Special Needs, and Student Mental Health During Distance Learning: Lessons from Minnesota

Guest post by Krista Kaput, Research Director, EdAllies Minnesota—along with 47 other states—has closed its school buildings for the remainder of the school year, elevating the importance of strong, equitable distance learning …


Educating Students with Disabilities During COVID-19: Civil Rights Endure and Authorizers Must Lead

By Wendy Tucker, Senior Director of Policy, National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools A crisis is not the time to roll back civil rights. It’s the time to roll up …


Tips for Virtual Capacity Interviews

Capacity interviews are a critical component of the new school application review processes. These interviews can provide crucial opportunities to secure information to address or confirm deficiencies in written applications, enable authorizers …


Authorizer Conversations: David Frank on the Sprints, Strolls, and Marathon of Authorizing Through a Pandemic

“The preponderance of questions that schools are asking are about students with disabilities, and how we transition to this new environment to serve them well – that is at the forefront of …


A Blueprint for Back to School: Additional Thoughts for Authorizers

On May 4th, the American Enterprise Institute, in collaboration with over 20 education leaders including NACSA’s acting President and CEO Karega Rausch, published A Blueprint for Back to School. Recognizing how vital, …


An Authorizer’s Role in Supporting Remote Learning

A Note from NACSA: Today’s guest blog comes from Ryan Marks, Director of Evaluation and Assessment at the Colorado Charter Schools Institute (CSI), an independent charter school board that oversees 39 schools …


Upholding Open Meetings Law in a Virtual World

During times of crisis, it is more important than ever that charter school boards continue regular meetings to review materials on educational continuity, finance, and operations, and to vote on action items …