According to Part B section 5201 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, one of the established purposes of the Charter Schools Program at the US Department of Education (ED) is to encourage "States to provide support to charter schools for facilities financing in an amount more nearly commensurate to the amount the States have typically provided for traditional public schools". To help achieve this purpose, the Charter School Program needs reliable data to understand the current facilities landscape for charter schools. There have been discussions on the struggles of charter schools for equitable and adequate access to facilities and facilities financing, yet there were no official studies, reports, or analyses explicitly discussing the facility landscape of charter schools and the similarities and differences between charter school and traditional public school facilities. The Charter Schools Program, through the National Charter School Resource Center, administers a questionnaire conducted by the Colorado League of Charter Schools to gather data on charter schools facilities. This data helps to assess the true facilities challenges of the charter schools and what actions ED and the SEAs must take to better financially support the facilities needs of quality charter schools. ED would like to continue to use and administer this questionnaire in additional states and compile the data from all states into a facilities database. ED plans to conduct this survey in approximately three to four states per year, depending on the size of the state and local resources of the CSO to support the survey. This database will provide comprehensive information about the facilities for charter schools and the issues that charter school face in trying to obtain adequate facilities. The League will produce a report and an analysis summarizing the findings per state.
US Code:
20 USC 7221d
Name of Law: Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.