Eight Charter District Applicants Advance to the Next Stage

• Note: This article has been updated from the version we originally posted to reflect that the number of charter applicants that will advance to the interview stage has dropped from nine to eight.
  
  That is due to the late announced decision by ONE Collegiate Charter School to withdraw its application for a new charter district in the Harris County area.

The TEA released the names of the eight applicants that will advance to the next stage of being considered to open new charter districts in Texas beginning in School Year 2024-25.

They were among the 25 charter district applicants that applied by the November 2022 deadline. The rest were eliminated from consideration earlier due to having issues with their applications, or were later eliminated by not scoring high enough during an external review process.

Officials of the eight applicants will be interviewed during meetings (article) in early May by TEA staff and State Board of Education (SBOE) members.

The commissioner will make his selections for new charter districts by late May, with the SBOE having one opportunity — at the board’s June meeting — to veto any applicant on the commissioner’s list.

The public will also be given an opportunity to present testimony about any of the finalists chosen by the commissioner during an SBOE committee meeting prior to the board’s final vote on June 23.

All applicants surviving the SBOE veto process would still have to correct any so-called contingencies identified by TEA staff before being allowed to open as new charter districts.

The table below lists the eight applicants, their ISD geographic boundary information and links to their applications.