Charter School Budget Overview: Best Practices and Processes Online Course

In this course, we discuss the five fundamental activities of budgeting, review the mechanics of the budget process and the documents most commonly used to describe a charter’s financial condition. During the course, we will review the information charter officials must use for responsible fiscal management, the inevitable adjustments charters must make to their budgets and any considerations that a charter must put into place to ensure that they remain solvent and maintain their financial health. Finally, we will explore some ways that budget information can help decision makers evaluate how well charter spending matches educational goals, set priorities consistent with those goals, and plan expenditures that are aligned with the charter vision.