Charter Schools have existed in Massachusetts since 1993.

According to state law, they were intended to:

Stimulate development of innovative programs within public education.

Provide opportunities for innovative learning and assessment.

Provide parents with greater options in selecting schools within and outside their school districts.

Provide teachers with a vehicle for establishing schools with alternative methods of educational instruction, school structure and management.

Encourage performance-based educational programs.

Hold teachers and school administrators accountable for students’ educational outcomes.

Provide models for replication in other public schools.

Commonwealth charters are approved by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, while Horace Mann Charter schools, the other type of charter school allowed in Massachusetts, are approved by local school committees and unions in the district where they are located. They still operate independently of that committee.

The state’s current cap is set at 120 charter schools. Of that, no more than 48 can be Horace Mann charter schools. Preference for new schools is given to applicants in lower-performing districts. Charters approved in communities with less than 30,000 residents must be regional charter schools.

If more students apply for a charter school than there are seats available to accommodate them, a lottery is held to fill the seats. Students who do not make the lottery are placed on a wait list that is used to backfill the classes as students leave.

Statewide, more than 30,000 students are estimated to be on wait lists.

No public school district can spend more than 9 percent of its net spending on charter schools unless they’re in the lowest 10 percent of schools by performance on state standardized tests, where districts can spend up to 18 percent.

Each school’s charter is re-evaluated every five years.

Charters in those districts must develop plans to ensure they’re serving special needs students, students who speak languages other than English and other at-risk populations.

Students in charter schools must meet all the same academic standards as traditional district school students.

To teach at a charter school, teachers must pass a state teacher’s test.

Charter schools can be located in private buildings, in existing school buildings or on other locations, but can’t take advantage of state assistance programs to build their facilities.

For students who live in the district in which the charter is located, the local school committee is responsible for providing transportation to school.

Commonwealth Charter Schools are exempt from local collective bargaining laws.