The Annual Governance Reporting Requirement for Charter Schools

October 18, 2023 | Charter Administration, Personnel Management

TEA collects information about charter school board members and school officers each year, as required by Texas law and outlined in TEC 12.119(b).

This year’s deadline is December 1, 2023!

The 2023-2024 Annual Governance Reporting Form for Open-Enrollment Charter Schools is due no later than Friday, December 1,
Charters must submit this information through the Charter School Tracking System (CSTS) in TEAL.
CSTS is now available for use and will remain open through the submission deadline.

What Do I Need to Do to Prepare For the Submission?

You will need to gather the following information from all board members and key administrators (Board Members, Chief Officers, Campus Administrators, Superintendent, etc.):

Full Legal Name and former names
Email, phone numbers, mailing address, residence address
Role
Amount of annual compensation (if any) to be received during the school year from the charter holder, charter school, or contractor/management company doing business with the charter holder or charter school.
Compliance Items: Relationship Disclosure, Voter Registration Status, Criminal Background, Training Requirements, and more

Have each officer sign a paper form with the above information. The paper version is made available by TEA, here: https://tea.texas.gov/texas-schools/texas-schools-charter-schools/governance-reporting-form.pdf

Ensure that each submission from a board member contains information that is consistent with the information registered with the Texas Secretary of State (SOS). Review the SOS management system to synchronize this information here: https://www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/sosda/index.shtml which will require a unique login. Once logged in, click on “Business Organizations”, enter the charter name under “Find Entity,” and review names under the section entitled “Management.” This information should be kept up-to-date in real time as board changes occur.

What other information is collected?

Several additional compliance items are also addressed in the Annual Governance Reporting task. These include attestation that your charter:

Has posted the student code of conduct and notice setting forth the circumstances under which a person may be refused entry to school property on the charter’s website
Has posted the daily financial reports of the charter school on the charter’s website. Sample Month End Report
Has posted the names of all Board members on the home page of the charter’s website
Has posted the salary of the Superintendent or CEO on the charter’s website

In the Governance Report, you are asked to prove compliance with each of these by pasting the direct weblink to the location of each compliance item.

What Are the Training Requirements?

Training requirements are listed in the TEC and TAC:

Who Must be Trained?

Commissioner Rules require that the following officials complete a training course (unless exemptions apply):

Board members (specific rules found here)
Chief Executive Officers
Central Administrative Officers
Campus Administrative Officers
Business Managers

Did you miss our free webinar on TEA Training Requirements? You can view it here!

When Must Training Occur?

Officials at new charters must complete the required training within a year of the date the charter agreement is signed.
New officials at existing charters must complete the required training in one calendar year from the date of taking office.
Existing officials at existing charters must complete all required hours each fiscal year.
Your charter’s required annual audit report (AFR) is the reporting mechanism to TEA to verify compliance with this requirement. The final audit report will address your charter’s compliance and, when applicable, list any official not complete in their training requirements.

Here are some questions and answers related to training and Governance Reporting:

QUESTION: On the Governance Reporting form, when a charter is asked if their training requirements are current, is the charter answering for

the current year (2024, i.e. the 2023-2024 school year) or
for the 2022-23 school year?
In other words, when checking YES, is the charter reporting training is current as of the date of the governance report, which would mean has been completed for prior years AND in process of being completed, if not already completed, for the current year?

ANSWER: A charter school official must complete his or her training within one calendar year from their start at the school. That person’s governance form needs to indicate that all the necessary training was done in that time period. For example, let’s say a new board member of a charter school joins the board on September 1, 2023. He or she has from that date until September 1, 2024 to finish training; and he or she does not complete training. When the board member files his/her governance form in December of 2023, he/she can report that they are current in the training requirement. Because the 2023 governance is being submitted in the middle of his/her training year, the board member is not expected to have all of this year’s training done when the year’s only half over.

QUESTION: If a charter did not complete all board/administration required training and checks NO on the training requirements question, is their board/administration required to complete the training for the prior school year as well as to complete training for the current school year?

ANSWER: If a board member/administrator failed to complete training that was required, he/she would have to select “no” on his/her form in this year’s governance submission. Two things would happen then: The school will receive a red “x” on the training requirements indicator of the Charter School Performance Framework, and the board member/administrator will be expected to complete the number of hours missing from any missing training year(s). That will be in addition to whatever hours are required for his/her current training year.

QUESTION: If an administrator is retiring during the 2023-2024 school year, is he required to complete the training?

ANSWER: It depends on when his/her training year is. Let’s say I’m a principal. My training year is September 1, 2023, through September 1, 2024. I am current in my training for the 2022-2023 year. My 2023-2024 training year doesn’t end until September 1, 2024. If I know I am going to retire before that date, I will not have to report my lack of training…though of course it is best practice that I complete the training while I am serving at the charter.

Where Can I Find Training?

Charter School Success offers complete training plans for all new and returning officers. All training is online for your convenience and available 24/7. You can find all of our training plans — bundled and discounted for you — right here.

How Do I Submit the Governance Report to TEA?

Login into TEAL (Your charter will need accounts: one for a submitter and one for an approver, who must be the Superintendent)
Choose the Charter School Tracking System (CSTS) application
Enter or select your charter organization information and choose Next
Choose Existing Member or Officer Info to Update from the dropdown and/or build new information by clicking New. Note: One automated form must be completed for each board member and school officer. Printed paper copies must be maintained on campus and must be signed and dated by each individual for whom a form is submitted.
Fill in the mandatory fields, clicking Next to move from one screen to the next.
Once all of the data is entered for all board members and officers, submit to TEA.
The Superintendent must approve and issue final submission to TEA. The deadline is December 1,

The full guidelines and instructions from TEA are available here: https://tea.texas.gov/texas-schools/texas-schools-charter-schools/governance-guidelines-and-instructions.pdf

There is still time to achieve compliance by December 1st!

Detailed instructions from TEA for completing the submission can be found here:
https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/2022-2023-governance-guidelines-and-instructions.pdf

Questions?

Ask questions, get answers and discuss this topic on the Charter School Community Roundtable now.