Washington charter school system gets back to work

SEATTLE – The Washington State Charter School Commission got back to work on Wednesday.

The board, which was reconstituted in the state’s new charter school law, held a virtual meeting and set requirements and new deadlines for approving charter school contracts for next school year.

The seven schools previously authorized by the commission to be charter schools will have until May 6 to meet certain financial and other paperwork filing deadlines, if they want to get a new charter school contract for the 2016-17 school year.

Two other schools were authorized by the Spokane school district and will need to follow a similar process to be reauthorized by June 2. So will other school organizations authorized for future openings.

It is not clear if all those schools will go through the process again.

The Washington Supreme Court ruled last fall that the state’s charter school law was unconstitutional. The Legislature passed a new charter law this year in response.