The federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) provides funding to State Educational Agencies with the purpose of expanding the number of high-quality charter schools available to students across the nation by providing financial assistance for planning of new charter school programs, implementation of new charter school programs, and dissemination of promising charter school practices in order to evaluate the effects of charter schools; including their impacts on student academic achievement, teaching and learning, families, and the community.
The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) plans to carry out the following objectives within Oregon to:
- Provide funds to charter approved, pre-operational charter schools in the development phase in order to increase educational equity and improve the quality of new charter schools statewide through an intensive incubation period.
- Provide funds to high-quality charter schools in operation for less than three years in order to facilitate implementation of their educational models, professional development, and curriculum, and to provide professional development in educational equity.
- Facilitate the dissemination of best practices between charter schools and their public school counterparts, and provide an access point for charter schools to share their evidence-based best practices.
- Strengthen authorizer quality throughout the state by providing high-quality training and professional development to authorizers.
In carrying out these objectives, the Oregon Charter Schools Program (OCSP) provides subgrants to qualified charter school developers and operators for the planning phase and/or early years of implementation of new charter schools, and to experienced and successful operators through the OCSP grant and assists districts in developing and strengthening charter authorizing practices through high quality professional development and training.
The OCSP Grant is funded on a reimbursement basis. Subgrantees will be reimbursed for allowable, approved activities following proof of expenditure. An applicant receiving a subgrant under this program may use the subgrant funds only for:
- (a) Post-award planning and design of the educational program, which may include:
- (i) Refinement of the desired educational results and of the methods for measuring progress toward achieving those results; and
- (ii) Professional development of teachers and other staff who will work in the charter school; and
- (b) Initial implementation of the charter school, which may include:
- (i) Informing the community about the school;
- (ii) Acquiring necessary equipment and educational materials and supplies;
- (iii) Acquiring or developing curriculum materials; and
- (iv) Other initial operational costs that cannot be met from State or local sources. (20 U.S.C. 7221c(f)(3)).
ODE was awarded $8,790,931 in FY17 for up to 16 awards.