Calculating Charter FIRST
Charter FIRST is the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST), which is detailed in Texas Education Code 39.082.
The purpose and goal of having a financial accountability rating system is to ensure that open enrollment charter schools continually strive to improve the management of their financial resources and provide transparency and openly report results to the general public. Not achieving an acceptable rating (score) on your Charter FIRST report could have some negative implications on your charter school such as the revocation of your charter, it can affect the ability to renew your charter, or cause TEA to order a hearing to be held before the commissioner or the commissioner’s designee at which the board president must explain the school’s low performance and/or lack of improvement.
A charter school’s FIRST rating is also a consideration for assigning accreditation statuses to charter schools.
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The 2022-23 Final Charter FIRST ratings based on fiscal year 2022 data are now available and can be found here:
- Charter FIRST Rating for Open-Enrollment Charter Schools and Charter Schools Operated by a Public Institution of Higher Education (IHE) | Texas Education Agency
- Under “Ratings”, click on “2011–2012 and newer Charter School – Financial Accountability Ratings (Select Year from Dropdown)“
- Select 2022-23 from the dropdown and look up your district by selecting your CDN
- Once located, you can bring up more detailed results by clicking on the CDN
The rating was determined by the indicators specified in 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) 109.1001(f).
Public Hearing Requirements
Within two months (60 days) of the release of final scores, your charter school must announce and hold a public hearing to distribute a financial management report that explains your charter’s FIRST rating and performance under each indicator. The community must be notified in writing (via newspaper or other electronic means) of the meeting, and it must be published no more than 30 days and no fewer than 10 days before the public meeting. The public hearing must be held at a location in the charter school’s facilities and can be combined with a regular scheduled board meeting. In addition to other notices required by law, the board must give notice of the hearing to owners of real estate property in the geographic boundaries of the charter and to parents of the charter school’s students.
Final Charter FIRST Rating and Required Hearing Reporting
This hearing will be held to distribute a financial management report that explains the school’s rating and its performance under each indicator for the current and previous years.
This report must also include:
- Copy of the Superintendent’s current employment contract
- A summary schedule of expenditures/reimbursements paid on behalf of or received by the Superintendent and each board member
- Charter school’s credit card expenses incurred by the Superintendent and each board member
- Fees received by the Superintendent for outside entity professional consulting services
- The total dollar amount per Board Member of business transactions with the Charter School
- The total dollar amount of gifts received by executive officers and board members with a value of $250 or more.
In addition, we encourage charter schools to include supplemental information or an additional report of any exceptional circumstances that may have impacted the score of one or more indicators.
For full requirements related to the report and meeting, see 19 TAC §109.1001(q).