1. (a) Prior to each selection cycle, the State Board of Education (SBOE) shall adopt an application form for submission by applicants seeking a charter to operate an open-enrollment charter school. The application form shall address the content requirements specified in Texas Education Code (TEC), §12.111, and contain the following:

   1. (1) the timeline for selection;
   2. (2) required applicant conferences and training prerequisites;
   3. (3) scoring criteria and procedures for use by the review panel selected under subsection (d) of this section;
   4. (4) selection criteria, including the minimum score necessary for an application to be eligible for selection; and
   5. (5) the earliest date an open-enrollment charter school selected in the cycle may open.
2. (b) The Texas Education Agency (TEA) shall review applications submitted under this section. If an application does not contain all required information and documentation and/or meet the standards in TEC, §12.101, and §100.1015 of this title (relating to Applicants for an Open-Enrollment Charter, Public Senior College or University Charter, or Public Junior College Charter), the TEA shall return the application without further processing. The TEA shall establish procedures and schedules for returning applications without further processing. Failure of the TEA to identify any deficiency, or notify an applicant thereof, does not constitute a waiver of the requirement and does not bind the SBOE.
3. (c) Upon written notice to the TEA, an applicant may withdraw an application.
4. (d) Applications that meet the standards established under TEC, §12.101, and §100.1015 of this title shall be reviewed and scored by an external application review panel selected by the commissioner of education from a pool of qualified candidates identified through a request for qualification (RFQ) process. The panel shall review and score applications in accordance with the procedures and criteria established in the application form. Review panel members shall not discuss applications with or accept meals, entertainment, gifts, or gratuities in any form from any person or organization with an interest in the results of the selection process for open-enrollment charters. Members of the review panel shall disclose to the TEA immediately upon discovery of any past or present relationship with an open-enrollment charter applicant, including any current or prospective employee, agent, officer, or director of the sponsoring entity, an affiliated entity, or other party with an interest in the selection of the application.
5. (e) Applications that are not scored at or above the minimum score established in the application form are not eligible for SBOE selection during that cycle. The SBOE may at its sole discretion decline to grant an open-enrollment charter to an applicant whose application was scored at or above the minimum score. No recommendation, ranking, or other type of endorsement by a member or members of the review panel is binding on the SBOE.

6. (f) All parts of the application are releasable to the public under the Texas Public Information Act and will be posted to the TEA website. Therefore, the following may be redacted from applications posted online:

   1. (1) personal email addresses;
   2. (2) documents that could violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) by identifying potential students of the charter school, including, but not limited to, sign-in lists at public meetings about the school, photographs of existing students if the school is currently operating or photographs of prospective students, and/or letters of support from potential charter school parents and/or students; and
   3. (3) any other information or documentation that cannot be released in accordance with Texas Government Code, Chapter 552.
7. (g) The SBOE or its designee(s) shall interview applicants whose applications received the minimum score established in the application form. The SBOE may specify individuals required to attend the interview and may require the submission of additional information and documentation prior or subsequent to an interview.

8. (h) The SBOE may consider criteria that include, but are not limited to, the following when determining whether to grant an open-enrollment charter:

   1. (1) indications that the charter school will improve student performance;
   2. (2) innovation evident in the program(s) proposed for the charter school;
   3. (3) impact statements from any school district whose enrollment is likely to be affected by the proposed charter school, including information relating to any financial difficulty that a loss in enrollment may have on a district;
   4. (4) evidence of parental and community support for the proposed charter school;
   5. (5) the qualifications, backgrounds, and histories of individuals and entities who will be involved in the management and educational leadership of the proposed charter school;
   6. (6) the history of the sponsoring entity of the proposed charter school, as defined in the application form;
   7. (7) indications that the governance structure proposed for the charter school is conducive to sound fiscal and administrative practices; and

   8. (8) indications that the proposed charter school would expand the variety of charter schools in operation with respect to the following:

      1. (A) representation in urban, suburban, and rural communities;
      2. (B) instructional settings;
      3. (C) types of eligible entities;
      4. (D) types of innovative programs;
      5. (E) student populations and programs; and
      6. (F) geographic regions.
9. (i) An applicant for an open-enrollment charter shall not communicate with a member of an external application review panel concerning a charter school application beginning on the date the panel member is notified of appointment to serve on a specific review cycle and ending when the SBOE takes final action awarding charters under that application. On finding a material violation of the no-contact period, the SBOE shall reject the application or applications affected.
10. (j) The SBOE may grant an open-enrollment charter subject to additional conditions and shall require fulfillment of such conditions before the charter school is issued a contract. Such conditions must be fulfilled by the awardee, as determined by the commissioner, no later than six months after the date of the award by the SBOE, or the authorization for charter is null and void with no additional action required by the SBOE. The commissioner may establish timelines for submission by the awardee of any documentation to be considered by the commissioner in determining whether a condition has been met.
11. (k) An open-enrollment charter shall be in the form and substance of a written contract signed by the chair of the SBOE, the chair of the charter holder, and the chief operating officer of the school, but is not a contract for goods or services within the meaning of Texas Government Code, Chapter 2260. The chief operating officer of the school shall mean the chief executive officer of the open-enrollment charter holder under TEC, §12.1012.

Source Note:The provisions of this §100.1 adopted to be effective December 5, 1999, 24 TexReg 10529; amended to be effective January 1, 2001, 25 TexReg 11652; amended to be effective October 7, 2001, 26 TexReg 7539; amended to be effective April 18, 2002, 27 TexReg 3109; amended to be effective December 21, 2008, 33 TexReg 10151; amended to be effective December 26, 2012, 37 TexReg 9927.