How can authorizers ensure quality systems and practices are in place before a charter school is declared ready to open?
Authorizers implement rigorous new school application review processes to ensure they approve only those applications that demonstrate a strong educational vision and plan; a viable financial model; evidence of community engagement, need, and demand; and a strong organization plan. The authorizer also ensures that the founding team has the capacities to open and operate a quality school, consistent with the identified mission. Once the authorizer decides to approve that school, however, that rigorous review process means nothing if the school opens before it is ready to serve students.
A strong Ready To Open (RTO) process is critical to setting schools up for success to meet the aspirations and needs of their communities once they open their doors. If schools open before they are actually ready, they will likely struggle from the start and potentially never achieve the vision laid out in their application. In some situations, they may close within a year or two, or even within months, causing great harm to students and families.
This RTO guidance from NACSA helps create a strong process to put authorizers and founding teams on the same page in the work to ensure a charter school is ready to open. The guidance includes:
- RTO Playbook – This playbook aims to provide authorizers with knowledge and resources that support the planning and execution of a quality RTO process. This playbook is also useful for new school developers, incubators, and others involved with opening new charter schools.
- RTO Criteria – This checklist provides authorizers and founding teams with a dynamic list of criteria that should be met in a successful RTO process.