Amendment ID: S2262-30

Amendment 30

Charter lottery “opt-out”

Mr. Finegold moves to amend the bill by striking Section 41 and 42 and replacing them with the following sections:-

“SECTION 41. Subsection (i) of said section 89 of said chapter 71, as so appearing, is hereby amended by adding the following paragraph:-

(4) For a district qualifying under paragraph (3) whose charter school tuition payments exceed 18 per cent of the school district’s net school spending, the board shall only approve an application for the establishment or expansion of a commonwealth charter school if the school meets 1 or more of the following criteria:

(i) the school enrolls students using an opt-out admissions lottery process that automatically includes the names of all eligible students, without any required application process for the school; or

(ii) the school’s primary purpose is to establish alternative education programs designed to serve at-risk students or students who have dropped out of school; provided that, for the purposes of this section, the term “at-risk student” shall mean any student enrolled in grades 7 through 12 who is identified as “high-risk” according to the early warning indicator index system, or any successor data collection and tracking system, developed by the department to identify and track students at risk of not graduating on time; and provided, further, that not less than 75 per cent of students enrolled at the school shall qualify as at-risk students or students who have dropped out of school.

Existing charter schools that apply for an expansion under clause (i) or (ii) shall demonstrate the ability to meet the criteria set forth in said clauses through a phased-in process established by the board. An existing Horace Mann or commonwealth charter school, which meets the criteria for expansion under clause (i) and is approved for new seats in a higher grade than the school currently serves, may assign students already enrolled in the school to those new seats; provided, however, that the charter school may fill all other open seats, including seats that open up in lower grades at the beginning of the school year and in any grade during the school year, using an opt-out admissions lottery process. Nothing in this section shall prevent the board from approving other Horace Mann or commonwealth charter school applications that meet the criteria in clause (i) or(ii) of this paragraph in districts where the net school spending cap has not been reached.

SECTION 42. Subsection (m) of said section 89 of said chapter 71, as so appearing, is hereby amended by adding the following 3 paragraphs:-

For a charter school qualifying under clause (i) of paragraph (4) of subsection (i), all students eligible to attend the school under the district’s assignment policy, if it were a district school, shall be deemed eligible for enrollment in the charter school without any application process required for admittance to the school, unless such application is required under the district’s assignment policy. The charter school shall conduct an admissions lottery, including the names of all eligible students, to fill all of the spaces in the school; provided, that the lottery is based upon a list of eligible students provided by the district. In the event that the parents or guardians of a student who is randomly selected for admission to the charter school through the lottery determine not to enroll the student in the charter school, then the charter school shall fill that enrollment space with a student from the waitlist maintained pursuant to this subsection. Parents or guardians of a student may elect for that student to not participate in the enrollment lottery.

Each charter school shall conduct an opt-out lottery at least 1 time per academic year. Through the lottery, the charter school shall randomly select a number of students equal to the number of anticipated enrollment spaces and shall randomly select a number of additional students to be placed on a waitlist. The charter operator, who shall maintain the waitlist, shall determine the number of students randomly selected for the waitlist in order to fill any open enrollment spaces that become available throughout the year. A charter school may conduct additional opt-out lottery draws during an academic year if the school determines that its waitlist will be exhausted prior to the fulfillment of all midyear enrollment spaces. An additional opt-out lottery shall place any students not immediately placed in an open enrollment space on the waitlist.  If a student randomly selected through an opt-out lottery remains on a waitlist at the close of the academic year in which the student was randomly selected, the student shall have the option to receive preference placement of the next available enrollment space in the next highest grade level, unless the next highest grade level is not offered by the charter school.

Notwithstanding subsection (n), charter schools qualifying under said clause (i) of said paragraph (4) of said subsection (i) shall have a rolling enrollment policy, approved by the Commissioner, in which the school shall attempt to fill vacant seats during the school year.”