Opening the Schoolhouse Door: Helping Charter Schools Access Space in District-Owned Facilities

Charter schools are an important part of a city’s improvement strategies, yet the growth of high-quality charters is often constrained. When promising charter schools don’t have access to buildings and district-owned buildings sit idle or are underenrolled, the array of public school options for families becomes limited.

To explore the effect of district-charter cooperation on facilities access for public charter schools in a range of political circumstances and state policy frameworks, CRPE researchers spoke with facility and charter school experts, reviewed laws in all 44 states with charter schools and the District of Columbia, and conducted site-specific interviews with district and charter leaders.