UPDATE: House Bill 242 was ratified Tuesday afternoon by the Senate.
The state Senate on Monday gave its initial approval to what Sen. Jerry Tillman called a “clean-up bill” for charter schools.
“It’s a bill to streamline regulations regarding charter schools, the fast replication of them,” said Tillman, R-Randolph.
Currently, the State Board of Education must decide whether to fast-track approval of an application of a high-quality charter school within 150 days. House Bill 242 would cut the approval time frame back to 90 days.
The bill also attempts to streamline the renewal process for charter schools. In addition, the bill would allow the state board to terminate, not renew, or seek applicants to assume operation of continually low-performing charter schools.
The bill defines a low-performing charter school as one receiving a school performance grade of D or F. A continually low-performing charter school is one designated as low-performing for at least two of three consecutive years.
The bill passed the Senate by a 45-0 vote. A final floor vote is scheduled today. Because the Senate made changes in the initial House version, the bill would have to return to the House, and possibly go to a Senate-House conference committee, before going to Gov. Pat McCrory for his signature.