Starting a Charter School

The California Charter Schools Association is here to help teams navigate the process of starting a charter school. As a charter school developer, you will join a community of transformational leaders across the state of California who are bringing new schools to their communities. We encourage you to explore the resources below that cover general information on starting a charter school, how to build a strong founding team, and the requirements for writing and submitting a new charter petition.

1. Starting a Charter School

Getting Started

Charter public schools are founded by teams of educators, parents and community members who design a school to meet their community's unique needs. Learn more about charter schools and the process for founding a new school in this recorded webinar.

California Department of Education Resources

Access resources here from the California Department of Education (CDE) for information about charter schools in the state.

2. Building a Strong Founding Team

In this webinar, you will learn the importance of setting a strong vision and mission statement for your charter school and how to build the right team to implement it.

3. Writing and Submitting a Charter Petition

Creating a Petition

In the following webinar, you will learn the 15-point structure of a charter petition and how a high-quality charter school should fully address each element.

Remember to research recently approved petitions in your target district. But to get a general understanding of what’s required in the charter petition, you can begin by looking over this high-quality petition that was approved by Sacramento City Unified and has been reviewed and vetted by CCSA. This petition was approved prior to AB 1505, so please be sure to review CCSA’s AB 1505 resource page to review changes to the charter development process requirements and reasons for denial.

4. Support

Questions? Contact the CCSA membership team at membership@ccsa.org.

CCSA advocates for statewide legislation and local policy that supports charter schools. We also work hard to guide our member schools through challenging processes including charter renewal. Full membership with CCSA can begin once your new school is open. In the meantime, we can provide you some high-level recommendations and contacts. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!