Charter Schools Office

January Newsletter

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RESOURCES FOR SCHOOLS


Below are standing resourceful items for our schools to stay up-to-date. Click below!


Building Community, Teaching Tolerance & Talking Race Resources


Calendar of Collections


Charter School Manual


Charter School Payment Calendar


Charter Sector Updates


CSO School FAQs


Enrollment Codes


SDP School Selection Page

NEXT NEWSLETTER


Click here to view the CSO December 2022 Newsletter. We encourage you to share this sign-up link with colleagues who wish to become newsletter subscribers!


Please email the CSO at [email protected] if you have feedback, questions, submissions, and/or if you would like to have your school or one of your scholars featured in an upcoming CSO newsletter.

January 9, 2023


Greetings Sector Leaders,


Happy New Year! I hope that you had a restful and enjoyable holiday break. I am excited about all of the amazing things the sector will accomplish in 2023.


To that end, I wanted to provide an update about the CSO team’s work in the coming months. We are excited to begin engaging in Renewal Site Visits for a cohort of 19 schools in the coming weeks. Members of the CSO team will be visiting schools from the week of January 16 through the week of March 20, and we look forward to learning more about the renewal cohort during those visits. We appreciate the sector’s flexibility and patience with us in advance, as we may be delayed in our responses to other outreach.


In the new year, we remain excited about engaging with the sector as a whole and deepening relationships. Be on the lookout for upcoming communication about our next PLC session focused on creating inclusive environments for all students in February. We also love to share stories of school and student events and projects, so if you have highlights to share, questions, or feedback about how the CSO can best support you, please let us know. Thank you for your continued partnership. Go Birds!


Sincerely,


Peng Chao

Acting Chief, Charter Schools

Calendar of Collections


The Calendar of collections for SY 2022-23 can be accessed here. Please refer to the following reminders and deadlines for the months of January and February:


Submissions for All Schools

  • Board of Trustees Roster: Saturday, January 14, 2023
  • Mid-Term Material Charter Amendment Requests: Sunday, January 15, 2023 
  • Teacher Emails: Friday, January 27, 2023
  • Current Year Approved Board Minutes- Quarter 2: Wednesday, February 1, 2023


Website Review Reminders for All Schools

Board Website: Saturday, January 7, 2023

Draft Organizational Compliance and Viability Report


The Draft Organizational Compliance and Viability Report was shared with schools on November 28, 2022. This report contains preliminary findings related to the Organizational Compliance and Viability Domain of the Charter School Performance Framework. The CSO shares this report to achieve two goals:

1) To provide schools with the opportunity to validate findings; and

2) To allow schools to provide revisions to specific noncompliant findings.


Schools will have the opportunity to dispute ratings found in error and provide resubmissions or reevaluations for specific items. Feedback will be due by January 20, 2023, and the CSO will provide opportunities to meet with the CSO team to answer any questions or provide clarification on ratings throughout December and early January. We hope that the extended period of time will allow all schools to have ample time to review the report.

Office of Special Finance Updates


The charter payment calendar for SY 2022-23 can be found here and in the Resources for Schools sidebar of this month’s Newsletter. It will remain linked in the Resources for Schools section throughout the school year. As a reminder: monthly payments beginning in October are based on enrollment information in Infinite Campus (total enrollment as well as enrollment of special education students based on current IEPs). It is critical that Infinite Campus is updated timely in order for payments to be accurate. The Office of Special Finance has prepared the slides linked here, which provide more information about charter payment calculations.

SY 2022-23 User Verification


There are still a number of schools that have not provided user verification updates for this year. The CSO wants to ensure school-based staff have no delays or disruptions to system access related to student data or District operations services. As such, charter school leaders and operations contacts should continue to verify SY 2022-23 school-specific users for SDP systems including Infinite Campus, Compass, and Payments. 


Questions about the user verification process, including requests for links to school-specific and network-specific user information, can be directed to [email protected].


HS Student Opportunity-Junior Science and Humanities Symposium


The Temple University Junior Science and Humanities Symposium invites high school students to report on the results of their original research investigations in STEM. Students can compete locally for scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $2,000, as well as have the opportunity to compete nationally and win scholarships ranging from $4,000 to $12,000. Research projects can be virtual, literature-based, computational, or lab based. There is no cost to register or participate in a regional JSHS event, and participants must submit applications by January 30, 2023. The symposium will be held on March 4, 2023. More information about the JSHS can be accessed here and the application can be accessed here.


2022-23 SDP School Selection


The 2022-23 School Selection Process is nearing its conclusion. Please continue to refer to the District's School Selection page here for updates regarding final lottery, notification, and response deadlines for families. Questions about the School Selection process should be directed to the Office of Student Enrollment and Placement at 215-400-4290 or [email protected].

Updates to End-Date Request Process


The Office of Student Enrollment and Placement has updated their process for processing end-dating requests. A full overview of this process can be accessed via the letter linked here


If a charter school seeks end-dating from a cyber charter school or a non-Philadelphia school, please email [email protected]. In addition to student information and effective dates, schools should also provide evidence of the student’s attendance at your school. Schools can use their discretion regarding the level of detail and time periods reflected when providing attendance records, but it should be apparent that any student requiring end-dating elsewhere has been attending your school.


If a charter school seeks end-dating from a District or brick-and-mortar Philadelphia charter school, please first contact the sending school. If the sending school is non-responsive after 2 email attempts and 72 hours, please email [email protected]. In addition to student information and effective dates, schools should also provide evidence of the student’s attendance at your school as well as evidence of previous contact to the sending school. 


While the CSO does not have the ability to end-date any students from Infinite Campus, we do want to ensure the sector has the most up-to-date information regarding receiving support. As much as possible, issues with end-dating should be resolved at the school-to-school level to ensure timely transportation arrangements for students as well as accurate payments to schools.