Section1.  Section 89(ff) of Chapter 71 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following:

Notwithstanding the foregoing, only commonwealth charter school applications that have received the approval of the local or regional school committee(s), or voters of school district(s) or regional school district(s) at town meetings or at general elections, shall be funded pursuant to the provisions of this section. Approval of an application by the board without the approval of either the school committee or the voters of the district(s) pursuant to subsection (nn) of this section shall be funded by the board, exclusive of Chapter 70 or other local funds.

Section 2.  Section 89 of Chapter 71 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following:

(nn) Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, commonwealth charter school applications may be approved by any of the following actions: by the approval of the application by the school committee for each school district from which the charter school is expected to enroll students, by the approval of the voters at town meetings of each town from which the charter school is expected to enroll students, or in a city by the approval of the city council, by whatever title it may be known, and the Mayor, or in the alternative by vote at a general biennial state election by municipalities from which the charter school is expected to enroll students, or by the approval of the board. Applications that have received the aforesaid local approval for a commonwealth charter school shall comply with the provisions for such submission pursuant to the applicable provisions of this section.

Section 3.  This act shall apply only to commonwealth charter school applications submitted after the date upon which the act becomes effective.