California Charter Schools Association v. Los Angeles Unified School District

Apr 09, 2015

OUTCOME: Victory

Supreme Court of California Charter schools association filed declaratory judgment lawsuit against school district, claiming the district failed to comply with statute governing facilities offers to ... charter schools. District entered into settlement agreement and, upon association’s subsequent action for breach of settlement agreement, was ordered to make statutorily compliant facilities offers to all association member charter schools for future school years until the term of settlement agreement ended. Charter schools association thereafter filed motion to enforce trial court’s order. The Superior Court ruled that district’s use of “norming ratios” to determine number of classrooms to provide to charter schools violated applicable regulation. District appealed. The Court of Appeal reversed. Association petitioned for review, and the Supreme Granted the petition OUTCOME: In responding to a charter school’s request for classroom space, a school district must follow a three-step process. First, the district must identify comparison group schools as the regulations prescribe. Second, the district must count the number of classrooms in the comparison group schools using the specific regulatory inventory and then adjust the number to reflect those classrooms “provided to” students in the comparison group schools. Third, the district must use the resulting number as the denominator in the ADA/classroom ratio for allocating classrooms to charter schools based on their projected ADA. Here, the District’s use of norming ratios departs from the required procedure by failing to use comparison group schools and by equating classrooms “provided to” students with classrooms staffed by teachers. In responding to future facilities requests, the District must count classrooms in a manner that conforms to the regulation. Cite: 60 Cal.4th 1221