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.