BPS Charter
What is a charter?
- A charter is the non-profit corporation’s founding document, which lays out the mission and all specifics about the school from curriculum to operations
- The charter document is the contract between the school and its sponsoring district, which describes the school’s performance goals and commitments that must be met in order to receive contract renewal
- A charter school is a monetarily free and zone-free public school that receives public money from its sponsoring district
- Applications for charter schools must be approved by the South Carolina Department of Education and then either the County or State District
- All charter schools are non-profit
- Charters allow for innovative curriculum and classroom instruction
- Charters are exempt from certain, but not all, traditional public school requirements
- A group of citizens can submit and get approval of a charter to run an independent public school
- Charter schools are open to the public and may be attended by choice, regardless of where a child resides in the district
- Each child must fill out an application for a charter school
- Typically, charter schools are smaller schools with fewer students per classroom than traditional public schools, but often also receive less funding (no transportation or facilities monies are assigned)
- Charter schools are held accountable by their test scores and can be closed for low academic performance (among other reasons)
- Charter schools allow parents to become intricately involved in their child’s education
- More information on SC Charter Schools Code of Law can be found here
- Learn more about the SC Charter School District here
- Learn more about public education in South Carolina here