Charter schools in New York are independent, not-for-profit public schools operating under a different set of rules than the typical state-run schools, exempt from many requirements and regulations. Any student eligible for public schools can apply.
Authorizers A charter school may be authorized by the State University of New YorkCharter Schools (SUNY), as accessed May 22, 2010. (through its Charter Schools Institute),Charter Schools Institute website, as accessed May 22, 2010. New York State's Education Department's Board of Regents,Charter School Office home page, as accessed May 22, 2010. or the New York City Department of Education (through the chancellor's office and the deputy executive director).Charter School Creation, as accessed May 22, 2010.
Governing state law State laws govern the establishing and supervision of charter schools. The New York Charter Schools Act of 1998, as amended, is codified as Education Law §§ 2850–2857. Chapter 4, approved 18 December 1998, effective immediately. Added Article 56 to the Education Law. Regulations appear in New York Codes, Rules and Regulations (NYCRR).
Any locality that has authorization to establish charter schools may have local law governing the process.
The 1998 State statutory provisions passed when then-Governor George Pataki included them in legislation giving otherwise-opposed legislators a pay raise and limiting the number of charters.
A state legislator's election was contested because of charter school issues.
Growth of schools
As of the 2023-24 school year, New York [State] has 343 operating charter schools serving over 170,000 students.
Charter School Demand
Although the number of charter schools in New York is at an all-time high, parent demand has long exceeded the supply. That has resulted in long waitlists of students. Organizations such as the New York City Charter School Center are working to eliminate the limit on the number of charter schools that can open in New York.
Statewide cap on number of schools In the first state legislation passed to regulate charter schools in 1998, a statewide cap of 100 schools with set so legislators could determine their success before expanding the initiative. Whether to double the maximum was debated and the legislative bill was subjected to lobbying in 2007 before it passed.
The 2007 revisions raised the cap on charter numbers to 200, with 100 being granted by the Board of Regents (BOR) on SUNY's suggestion and the remaining 100 being granted on the proposals of the other charter bodies listed in the Act. Of the additional charters, up to 50 were set aside for New York City. The other charter entities reached the 2007 maximum, leaving just SUNY's charter subject to the 2007 cap.
As of the 2010 changes, the maximum quantity of charters that could be granted was limited to 460. This included 200 from the 2007 limitation plus an extra 260, of which 130 would be granted based on SUNY's proposal and the remaining 130 would be granted by the BOR. There were restrictions placed on the number of charters issued to charter schools in New York City.
The 2015 amendments which imposed a 460 charter cap, stipulate that charters must be granted on SUNY or the BOR's recommendation, and cap the total number of charters that can be granted to New York City charter schools on or after July 1, 2015, at 50. Following the 2015 modifications to the Education Law, 84 charters remain available for issuance. The 2015 changes also allow up to 22 charters that have been surrendered, canceled, terminated, or not renewed to be reissued upon the suggestion of the BOR or SUNY.
The 2023 changes maintain the 460 charter cap, but they allow for the reissuance of up to 22 charters that were relinquished, revoked, terminated, or not renewed after January 1, 2015, and before July 1, 2022, with the approval of the BOR or SUNY. In addition, new charters cannot be allowed in a geographic region of New York City where at least 55% of the children are enrolled in charter schools. Of the 22 available charters, no more than 14 may be granted to charter schools in the city.
Governmental political support In New York City, support by Mayor Michael Bloomberg for new charter schools was substantial but whether substantial mayoral support would continue after a new Mayor was elected in 2013 was, according to an official of Success Academy Charter Schools, unknown.Bungeroth, Megan Finnegan, Upper West Success Settles in After Controversial Start, in West Side Spirit (New York, N.Y.), December 1, 2011, p. 8, [§] News. According to reporter Michael Powell, "the charter school wars ... could define the next mayoral election", with the teachers' union, some parents groups, and New York Communities for Change opposing the opening of more charter schools and Bloomberg supporting StudentsFirstNY in favor of same.
For political advocacy, according to Geoff Decker in 2012, while independent charter school operators tended to "quietly steer ... clear of front-line battles over ideology",Decker, Geoff, Charter School Rally Brings Out Deep Tensions Within the Sector, in GothamSchools, June 6, 2012, 11:55 a.m., as accessed April 27, 2013. some charter school group operators, including Success Academy Charter Schools, KIPP, Public Prep, and Uncommon Schools, "see charter schools as a weapon in a political fight against teachers unions to reform the larger school system and believe that the fight requires robust, hands-on organizing and lobbying efforts", and, in 2011, led a rally with 2,500 people.
Evaluations The New York City Department of Education surveys parents and teachers, and, for 6th grade and higher, students, in every school every year about qualities of the school. Comparisons are possible where response rates are reasonably high. Results may indicate some of the strengths and weaknesses of a school.NYC School Survey results are published. As accessed May 15, 2010. According to Brill, "the central evidentiary value of charters like ... [Success Academies] .... [is that] [t]hey proved that intense, effective teaching could overcome poverty and other obstacles and that, as Klein liked to say, demography does not have to be destiny."
Specific schools
Among charter schools are Achievement First charter network, La Cima Elementary Charter School, Democracy Prep charter network, Harlem Village Academy charter network, KIPP, Public Prep, Staten Island Community Charter School, and Success Academy Charter Schools. A list of charter schools is available from the Charter Schools Institute.As accessed March 24, 2010. A list of charter and public non charter schools is available from the New York State Education Department .As accessed May 6, 2010 (organization determined from the http://www.nysed.gov/ home page, as accessed the same day).
One charter school founded with its board chair as Randi Weingarten, who also then headed the United Federation of Teachers, a teachers' union, proposed collaboration between teachers and management and a normal-length school day. New York City public schools then-chancellor Joel Klein was "thrilled" for the school's founding, according to journalist Steven Brill, partly because once that school needed space in a public non charter school the union could not object to the principle of collocation and he could arrange for other charters to share space with non charters. Its first charter was approved in 2005. The renewal in 2010 was proposed to be limited to 3 years instead of the normal 5, because the school had "an ambiguous or mixed record of educational achievement", with only 34 percent of students being proficient in math when tested and 28 percent of students doing so in English.
Influence on non charters Studies of the impact of charters on public schools have produced mixed results.
A 2017 study from Temple University showed the positive effects NYC charter schools have made on neighboring district schools. The analysis, based on data from the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), found that "charter schools have small positive spillovers on public school students, increasing math and ELA performance." The study also found that charter schools have no significant negative effect on their neighboring district school.
But most studies find that charter schools have not achieved their original mission of creating innovative educational practices that can be brought back to public schools. Further, charter schools have placed significant strain on public school resources: "Despite expenditure cutting measures, districts simultaneously facing rapid student population decline and/or operating in states with particularly inequitable, under-resourced school finance systems have faced substantial annual deficits."
Charter Schools Record of Educational Results By certain measures, charter schools in New York City outperform their district school counterparts on an annual basis. These measures emphasize the numbers of students proficient at a given grade level. However, they don't account for the fact that students in charter schools are self-selecting. And although charters purportedly admit students by lottery, multiple reports indicate that charter schools employ methods that exclude students who have a lower likelihood of grade-level proficiency. As a result, the profiles of students entering charter schools vary significantly from those entering charter schools. Such selective admission practices make it difficult to compare proficiency levels across public and charter schools.
In the 2017 annual New York State assessments: 53% of New York City charter school students were proficient in English Language Arts (ELA), compared with 38% of NYC district students. In math, 48% of charter students were proficient; 41% of district students were proficient. Among African-Americans: 52% of charter students could do math at grade level, only 20% of district students were proficient. For ELA: 49% of African-American charter students were proficient; 29% of district students were proficient. Among Hispanic students: 48% of charter students were proficient in math; 25% of Hispanic district school students were proficient in math. And in ELA: 45% of Hispanic charter school students could read at grade level; while 30% of Hispanic district students were proficient.
Analysis from The Future of Children, a journal published by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution, found that "On average, charter schools perform at about the same level as traditional public schools." However, the report also found that charter schools employing a "no excuses" approach are more effective at closing the achievement gap than those that don't. An analysis by The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University showed "the benefits for charter students are as if the students received 34 days of additional learning in reading and 63 additional days in math in the course of a school year."
Other studies have found that, when controlling for incoming populations, charter schools lag behind public schools in student performance. "A well-publicized study of charter schools by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) in 15 states and the District of Columbia studied 70% of the students enrolled in charter schools in the U.S. They found 17 percent of charters posted academic gains that were significantly better than traditional public schools, 37 percent of charter schools were significantly worse, and 46 percent were statistically indistinguishable. Another recent study by Zimmer et al. found that charters in five jurisdictions were performing the same as traditional public schools, while charter schools in two other jurisdictions were performing worse."
Emulation and choice through competition