The National Charter School Resource Center (NCSRC) created the High-Quality Charter Authorizing Policy Profiles (State Profiles) as summaries of states’ charter school authorization policy contexts. The new state profiles are intended to be used by state policymakers and practitioners to learn about their own authorizing policy environments. They also help leaders in charter school support organizations or charter management organizations who are working to deepen their understanding of state policy contexts and translate state education laws and policies into actionable practices that support all learners.

The 19 states that are profiled represent those who received a Charter Schools Program (CSP) State Entities (SE) grant between 2017 and 2019, and include:

• Alabama
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Colorado
• Delaware
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Maryland
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• Rhode Island
• Texas
• Washington
• Wisconsin

Researchers reviewed legislation and policy in each state against the Policy Framework for High-Quality Charter Authorizing Practices (Framework), identified whether the authorizing practices specified in the Framework were present in state law or policy, and then asked representatives from active State Entity grantees to review the final profiles for accuracy. Each State profile includes a (i) Framework Snapshot, which is an assessment of a State’s authorizing practices using the Framework described in the first paragraph above and (ii) a more detailed description of the state context for each practice.