What Schools Need to Know About the Coronavirus

Editor’s note: As the news of the Coronavirus heats up, we felt that it was important to help disseminate accurate and pertinent information to our school communities. Because we understand the tremendous impact it may soon have on schools across the country, we wanted to get the message out to reinforce the best practice prevention recommendations published by the CDC. The information in this blog post was taken directly from the Centers for Disease Control. This interim guidance is based on what is currently known about the transmission and severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will update this guidance as needed and as additional information becomes available. Please check the following CDC website periodically for updated interim guidance: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html.

Who is this guidance for?

This interim guidance is intended to help administrators of public and private childcare programs and K-12 schools prevent the spread of COVID-19 among students and staff. Administrators are individuals who oversee the daily operations of childcare programs and K-12 schools, and may include positions like childcare program directors, school district superintendents, principals, and assistant principals. This guidance is intended for administrators at both the school/facility and district level.

Why is this guidance being issued?

Information provided should help childcare programs, schools, and their partners understand how to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19 within childcare and school communities and facilities. It also aims to help childcare programs, schools, and partners to react quickly should a case be identified. The guidance includes considerations to help administrators plan for the continuity of teaching and learning if there is community spread of COVID-19.

What is the role of schools in responding to COVID-19?

COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by a novel (new) virus, and we are learning more about it every day. There is currently no vaccine to protect against COVID-19. At this point, the best way to prevent infection is to avoid being exposed to the virus that causes it. Stopping transmission (spread) of the virus through everyday practices is the best way to keep people healthy. More information on COVID-19 is available here.

Schools, working together with local health departments, have an important role in slowing the spread of diseases to help ensure students have safe and healthy learning environments. Schools serve students, staff, and visitors from throughout the community. All of these people may have close contact in the school setting, often sharing spaces, equipment, and supplies.

Guidance for schools which do not have COVID-19 identified in their community

To prepare for possible community transmission of COVID-19, the most important thing for schools to do now is plan and prepare. As the global outbreak evolves, schools should prepare for the possibility of community-level outbreaks. Schools want to be ready if COVID-19 does appear in their communities.

Childcare and K-12 school administrators nationwide can take steps to help stop or slow the spread of respiratory infectious diseases, including COVID-19:

- - Review, update, and implement emergency operations plans (EOPs). This should be done in collaboration with local health departments and other relevant partners. Focus on the components, or annexes, of the plans that address infectious disease outbreaks.
    - Ensure the plan includes strategies to reduce the spread of a wide variety of infectious diseases (e.g., seasonal influenza). Effective strategies build on everyday school policies and practices.
    - Ensure the plan emphasizes common-sense preventive actions for students and staff. For example, emphasize actions such as staying home when sick; appropriately covering coughs and sneezes; cleaning frequently touched surfaces; and washing hands often.
      - CDC has workplace resources such as posters with messages for staff about staying home when sick and how to avoid spreading germs at work.
      - Other health and education professional organizations may also have helpful resources your school can use or share. For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics provides information on germ prevention strategies and reducing the spread of illness in childcare settings
    - Ensure handwashing strategies include washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or using a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available.
      - CDC offers several free handwashing resources that include health promotion materials, information on proper handwashing technique, and tips for families to help children develop good handwashing habits.
  - Reference key resources while reviewing, updating, and implementing the EOP:
    - Multiple federal agencies have developed resources on school planning principles and a 6-step process for creating plans to build and continually foster safe and healthy school communities before, during, and after possible emergencies. Key resources include guidance on developing high-quality school emergency operations plans, and a companion guide on the role of school districts in developing high-quality school emergency operations plans.
    - The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance (TA) Center’s website contains free resources, trainings, and TA to schools and their community partners, including many tools and resources on emergency planning and response to infectious disease outbreaks.
  - Develop information-sharing systems with partners.
    - Information-sharing systems can be used for day-to-day reporting (on information such as changes in absenteeism) and disease surveillance efforts to detect and respond to an outbreak.
    - Local health officials should be a key partner in information sharing.
  - Monitor and plan for absenteeism.
    - Review the usual absenteeism patterns at your school among both students and staff.
    - Alert local health officials about large increases in student and staff absenteeism, particularly if absences appear due to respiratory illnesses (like the common cold or the “flu,” which have symptoms similar to symptoms of COVID-19).
    - Review attendance and sick leave policies. Encourage students and staff to stay home when sick. Use flexibility, when possible, to allow staff to stay home to care for sick family members.
    - Discourage the use of perfect attendance awards and incentives.
    - Identify critical job functions and positions, and plan for alternative coverage by cross-training staff.
    - Determine what level of absenteeism will disrupt continuity of teaching and learning.
  - Establish procedures for students and staff who are sick at school.
    - Establish procedures to ensure students and staff who become sick at school or arrive at school sick are sent home as soon as possible.
    - Keep sick students and staff separate from well students and staff until they can leave.
    - Remember that schools are not expected to screen students or staff to identify cases of COVID-19. The majority of respiratory illnesses are not COVID-19. If a community (or more specifically, a school) has cases of COVID-19, local health officials will help identify those individuals and will follow up on next steps.
    - Share resources with the school community to help families understand when to keep children home. This guidance, not specific to COVID-19, from the American Academy of Pediatrics can be helpful for families.
  - Perform routine environmental cleaning.
    - Routinely clean frequently touched surfaces (e.g., doorknobs, light switches, countertops) with the cleaners typically used. Use all cleaning products according to the directions on the label.
    - Provide disposable wipes so that commonly used surfaces (e.g., keyboards, desks, remote controls) can be wiped down by students and staff before each use.
  - Create communications plans for use with the school community.
    - Include strategies for sharing information with staff, students, and their families.
    - Include information about steps being taken by the school or childcare facility to prepare, and how additional information will be shared.
  - Review CDC’s guidance for businesses and employers.
    - Review this CDC guidance to identify any additional strategies the school can use, given its role as an employer.

Childcare and K-12 administrators can also support their school community by sharing resources with students (if resources are age-appropriate), their families, and staff. Coordinate with local health officials to determine what type of information might be best to share with the school community. Consider sharing the following fact sheets and information sources:

Information about COVID-19 available through state and local health departments
General CDC fact sheets to help staff and students’ families understand COVID-19 and the steps they can take to protect themselves:
CDC Information on COVID-19 and children
CDC information for staff, students, and their families who have recently traveled back to the United States from areas where CDC has identified community spread of coronavirus:
- A list of countries where community spread of COVID-19 is occurring can be found on the CDC webpage: Coronavirus Disease 2019 Information for Travel

For questions about students who plan to travel, or have recently traveled, to areas with community spread of COVID-19, refer to CDC’s FAQ for travelers. Schools can also consult with state and local health officials. Schools may need to postpone or cancel trips that could expose students and staff to potential community spread of COVID-19. Students returning from travel to areas with community spread of COVID-19 must follow guidance they have received from health officials. COVID-19 information for travel is updated regularly on the CDC website.

Guidance for schools with identified cases of COVID-19 in their community

If local health officials report that there are cases of COVID-19 in the community, schools may need to take additional steps in response to prevent spread in the school. The first step for schools in this situation is to talk with local health officials. The guidance provided here is based on current knowledge of COVID-19. As additional information becomes available about the virus, how it spreads, and how severe it is, this guidance may be updated. Administrators are encouraged to work closely with local health officials to determine a course of action for their childcare programs or schools.

Determine if, when, and for how long childcare programs or schools may need to be dismissed.

Temporarily dismissing childcare programs and K-12 schools is a strategy to stop or slow the further spread of COVID-19 in communities. During school dismissals, childcare programs and schools may stay open for staff members (unless ill) while students stay home. Keeping facilities open a) allows teachers to develop and deliver lessons and materials remotely, thus maintaining continuity of teaching and learning; and b) allows other staff members to continue to provide services and help with additional response efforts.

Childcare and school administrators should work in close collaboration and coordination with local health officials to make dismissal and large event cancellation decisions. Schools are not expected to make decisions about dismissal or canceling events on their own. Schools can seek specific guidance from local health officials to determine if, when, and for how long to take these steps. Large event cancellations or school dismissals*** may be recommended for 14 days, or possibly longer if advised by local health officials. The nature of these actions (e.g., geographic scope, duration) may change as the local outbreak situation evolves.

If an ill student or staff member attended school prior to being confirmed as a COVID-19 case:

Local health officials may recommend temporary school dismissals if a student or staff member attended school prior to being confirmed as a COVID-19 case. Local health officials’ recommendations for the scope (e.g., a single school, a full district) and duration of school dismissals will be made on a case-by-case basis based on the most up-to-date information about COVID-19 and the specific cases in the impacted community.
Schools should work with the local health department and other relevant leadership to communicate the possible COVID-19 exposure. This communication to the school community should align with the communication plan in the school’s emergency operations plan. In such a circumstance, it is critical to maintain confidentiality of the student or staff member as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act.
If a student or staff member has been identified with COVID-19, school and program administrators should seek guidance from local health officials to determine when students and staff should return to schools and what additional steps are needed for the school community. In addition, students and staff who are well but are taking care of or share a home with someone with a case of COVID-19 should follow instructions from local health officials to determine when to return to school.

If schools are dismissed, schools can consider the following steps:

Temporarily cancel extracurricular group activities and large events.
- - Cancel or postpone events such as after-school assemblies and pep rallies, field trips, and sporting events.
Discourage students and staff from gathering or socializing anywhere.
- - Discourage gatherings at places like a friend’s house, a favorite restaurant, or the local shopping mall.
Ensure continuity of education.
- - Review continuity plans, including plans for the continuity of teaching and learning. Implement e-learning plans, including digital and distance learning options as feasible and appropriate.
  - Determine, in consultation with school district officials or other relevant state or local partners:
    - If a waiver is needed for state requirements of a minimum number of in-person instructional hours or school days (seat time) as a condition for funding;
    - How to convert face-to-face lessons into online lessons and how to train teachers to do so;
    - How to triage technical issues if faced with limited IT support and staff;
    - How to encourage appropriate adult supervision while children are using distance learning approaches; and
    - How to deal with the potential lack of students’ access to computers and the Internet at home.
Ensure continuity of meal programs.
- - Consider ways to distribute food to students.
  - If there is community spread of COVID-19, design strategies to avoid distribution in settings where people might gather in a group or crowd. Consider options such as “grab-and-go” bagged lunches or meal delivery.
Consider alternatives for providing essential medical and social services for students.
- - Continue providing necessary services for children with special healthcare needs, or work with the state Title V Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) Program.

What District and Charter School Teachers Think About the Biggest Issues in Education

Editor’s Note: This survey was published by Educators for Excellence, a teacher-led nonprofit that ensures teachers have a leading voice in the policies that impact their students and profession.

We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support school choice, charter school growth, and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.

Voices From the Classroom: A Survey of America’s Educators

We are excited to share the results from our second edition of Voices from the Classroom, a nationally representative survey by teachers that captures the views and opinions of our colleagues across the country on a wide variety of education issues. The purpose of this survey is to provide decision-makers with key insights from untapped classroom experts — teachers.

This survey comes at a time ripe for change. Too often during the last two years, in districts across the country, teachers have felt that they had to walk out of their classrooms in order for their concerns to be heard. As teachers, we see our students’ challenges up close each day, and we know the many ways our education system is currently failing them. We have the knowledge, skills, and passion to lead the changes we know our profession and schools need, but we are rarely given the opportunity nor are we appropriately compensated when we are.

This election year, however, offers a unique opportunity to address what is preventing our students from reaching their full potential and us, as teachers, from thriving in our careers. We don’t need tweaks; we need meaningful change. This report offers a guide for the changes we want to see.

Download the Survey

School Choice Poll: 70% of Voters Support Charter Schools

Editor’s Note: This survey was published by the American Federation for Children on January 21, 2020. We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support school choice, charter school growth, and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.

American Federation of Children’s Sixth Annual National School Choice Poll Results

The American Federation for Children released its annual education survey today. Support for charter schools is at 70 percent, with just 26 percent opposed. Perhaps even more encouragingly, “a majority of voters [58 percent] are less likely to support candidates who want to eliminate federal charter school funding.” Among subgroups, 65 percent of Latino voters, 62 percent of African Americans, and 56 percent of Democratic primary voters would be less likely to back a candidate who wants to de-fund the CSP. This despite Sen. Elizabeth Warren making Charter Schools Program elimination a central plank of her presidential education proposal and other candidates attacking charter schools in various ways. Perhaps hostility to charters isn’t quite as firmly set as we’ve feared. The Obama-Clinton position on charters may ultimately carry the day.

Download Survey Results

The 2020 Ranking of Public Charter School Laws

Editor’s Note: We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support school choice, charter school growth, and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.

The following report and content are from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

For more than a decade, this charter law rankings report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has analyzed how well each state aligns its charter school law to their “gold standard” model law.

Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws

This report draws on best practices in state policy that have led to the growth of high-quality charter schools, while also addressing weaknesses that, in some cases, have allowed underperforming charter schools and ineffective authorizers to avoid accountability. For example, the model law follows and builds on a report [from 2016] where the National Alliance called for reform of full-time virtual charter schools, too many of which significantly underperform.

The current model law encourages states to provide more equitable support to charter school students, allow for more flexibility to charter schools, and strengthen accountability for charter schools and their authorizers. Specific revisions to the model law include policy updates on full-time virtual schools, funding, authorizers, facilities, flexibility, and discipline.

These 2020 charter school law rankings are the first rankings to reflect the impact of the 2018 election cycle. States like California and Illinois, where previous governors supported charter-friendly policies, elected officials who allowed charter opponents to make headway on anti-charter-policies. Those states saw a drop in their rankings. At the same time, advocates made improvements in funding and facilities policies in many states, with Idaho and Tennessee making the biggest jumps.

DOWNLOAD REPORT

Flawed Report Gives an Inaccurate Picture of Charter Schools

Editor’s Note: This analysis was published by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools on December 11, 2019. The analysis released by NAPCS addresses Still Asleep at the Wheel, a publication released by the anti-charter school group, the Network for Public Education (NPE):

Bad Data and False Assumptions in Still Asleep at the Wheel

Today, Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, published the following statement regarding Still Asleep at the Wheel, a publication released by the anti-charter school group, the Network for Public Education (NPE):

“Charter schools have been, and are, a lifeline to millions of students—many of them poor, black, and brown. And the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) has provided vital seed funding for charter schools, allowing new schools to open and high-performing charter schools to replicate and expand in communities where there is a desperate need for high-quality public school options.

“The CSP, like every federal program, should be subject to careful oversight and thoughtful review—in order to safeguard taxpayer investments and the education of students. Unfortunately, the NPE ‘report’ is neither thoughtful nor careful. Instead, it is a reckless attack on an indispensable program, substituting half-truths, falsehoods, and unsubstantiated assertions for careful analysis.

“According to the U.S. Department of Education’s own analysis of 5,264 charter schools that have received state or direct Department funding, only 1.7 percent of CSP-funded charter schools close before their second year of operation. The Department’s analysis also found that the start-up success rate of charter schools that received CSP funding has improved as greater oversight has been implemented. Moreover, this report does not include data from grants awarded since the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which greatly strengthened the CSP program. Since 2001, more than 96 percent of all CSP funds resulted in the opening of a charter school.

“The report also frames every closure—regardless of when or why it occurs—as a sign of waste. To the contrary, school closures indicate state charter school laws are working and authorizers are doing their job—closing schools that aren’t meeting their accountability agreements. This feature distinguishes charter schools from district-run schools, which can continue to remain open and spend taxpayer dollars even when they fail to provide a quality education for students. Furthermore, our review of publicly available data finds that, on average, four percent of charter schools close each year—nowhere near the picture this report attempts to paint.

“NPE incorrectly assumes that when a multi-year CSP grant award is made, funding is provided in its entirety up front. This is not true. Schools that never open receive only a fraction of the award amount—typically only utilizing ‘planning’ funds. Thus, if a school never opens it can’t receive its full CSP award. The NPE analysis dramatically overstates the amount of funding allocated to schools that never opened. This is just one example of the multiple problems with the report.

“The false claims contained in the report are unfortunately not surprising. NPE, its board, and its funders have long been more concerned with stopping the progress toward more high-quality public school options than ensuring that every child—regardless of zip code—has access to a high-quality education.

“NPE is a biased organization that is funded by the teachers’ unions, which are notoriously hostile to giving parents and students more choices in public education. In 2018, the American Federation of Teachers reported contributing $35,000 to the Network for Public Education Action. Between 2014 and 2016, the Chicago Teachers Union Foundation gave more than $300,000 to the Network for Public Education. This report is another attempt to put a veneer of data and research on a political effort to deny students public school choices. We would urge all readers to consider the source before embracing the finding.

“We at the National Alliance want the CSP to work well, especially for the estimated 5 million students who would attend a charter school if one were available to them. We are eager to promote an honest and fact-based evaluation of the program’s strengths as well as areas in which improvement is needed. Unfortunately, the NPE report has no place in such an assessment and instead spreads smoke where light is needed.”

For more information on why Still Asleep at the Wheel is filled with bad data and false assumptions, see our full analysis.

DOWNLOAD ANALYSIS

Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We help schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources charter schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $2 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

LEARN MORE

Supporting Charter School Students Experiencing Homelessness

Editor’s Note: This resource was published by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools on December 4, 2019. It was created in partnership with SchoolHouse Connection, a nonprofit organization working to overcome homelessness through education.

How Charter Schools Can Support Students Experiencing Homelessness

Education is a critical tool to address the needs of students experiencing homelessness. For these students, school can be a vital source of stability. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a federal law that provides rights and services for students experiencing homelessness. It applies to all local educational agencies (LEAs) and public schools, including public charter schools.

This toolkit was developed in partnership with SchoolHouse Connection and is intended as a charter school-focused resource that explains the basic legal requirements of the McKinney-Vento Act, while highlighting a few examples of best practices from the charter school community. The toolkit includes three main components for practitioners: (1) Introduction to Student Homelessness, (2) Enrolling Students Experiencing Homelessness, and (3) Supporting Success for Students Experiencing Homelessness.

DOWNLOAD TOOLKIT

LEARN MORE

What the 2020 Primary Candidates Get Wrong About Charter Schools

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published here on November 19, 2019, by the Wall Street Journal. It was written by David Osborne who leads the education work of the Progressive Policy Institute.

The Big Lie About Charter Schools

When Sen. Elizabeth Warren released her education plan, she trotted out a familiar charge against charter schools: that they “strain the resources of school districts.” To fight this supposed scourge, she promised to end federal financial support for new charter schools. And she’s not an outlier among the Democratic presidential hopefuls. Her fellow progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders had already charged, in his education plan, that charter schools’ “growth has drained funding from the public school system.” Even Joe Biden —who served under President Obama, an enthusiastic charter supporter—has picked up the refrain. “The bottom line” on chartering, he told an American Federation of Teachers town hall, “is, it siphons off money for our public schools, which are already in enough trouble.”

To begin with, charters themselves are public schools. The only difference is that they are operated independently of district bureaucracies, with more freedom to design their programs and choose their teachers but also more accountability. If charters fail—if their students fall too far behind—they are usually closed.

The same arguments made about charter school funding don’t make sense in other contexts. When a family moves out of a district, the district loses state and federal money for its child’s education, but no one accuses the family of draining funds from the district. When parents move their child to a private school, no one accuses them of sabotaging public schools.

So why are leading Democratic presidential primary candidates lambasting charters as a threat to public education? Because no interest group has more clout in the Democratic primaries than teachers unions. In the last presidential election, the AFT and National Education Association combined spent $64 million.

Whether charters drain money from public school districts depends on the state. In over half the states with charters, when students decamp some or all districts get to keep their local tax revenue but no longer have to educate the children, so they actually increase their spending per pupil. In Massachusetts and New York (outside New York City), the state cushions any revenue loss. By law, Massachusetts districts should be reimbursed 100% of the state money for the student for a year, then 25% for the next five years—though the state has only met about 60% of that funding since 2015.

The unions and their allies ignore these realities and focus on costs the districts can’t cut even as they lose students: pensions, principals’ salaries, building maintenance and utilities. These costs are real, but in a majority of charter states local revenue or the state-provided cushion covers most or all of them.

And the pension problem is exaggerated. As districts lose students, they reduce their number of teachers, which also reduces payments to the pension fund. If the pension system has been properly funded, there’s no negative impact. The real problem is that most states have fallen behind on their funding obligations, and now some districts are being forced, as in California, to play catch-up.

Mitigating the cost of building maintenance and utilities takes a little creative thinking. Districts can rent empty classrooms to preschool and adult-education providers. Once their schools are down to 75% capacity or below, they can lease the extra space to charter or private schools. In cities that aren’t afraid of charters, such as Washington and Denver, many school buildings house both a charter and a district school. When that’s not enough, districts can close buildings that are more than half empty and lease or sell them to charter schools.

None of this decreases the public education available to students, and it often improves the quality. But leaders of the teachers unions scream when school boards contemplate any of it.

That’s because unions shrink as charters grow. Charter schools are free to unionize, but as of last year only about 11% chose to do so. That doesn’t threaten teachers, who have more potential employers as the charter sector grows, more opportunity to choose a school that fits. But it does threaten the handsome pay union leaders receive—more than $400,000 a year for leaders of the NEA and AFT as well as more than $200,000 for other staff members.

Charter schools give millions of children—two-thirds of them nonwhite—the opportunity to get an education, go to college and move up the socioeconomic ladder. Even the unions’ favorite source of charter studies—they keep calling back to an outdated report of theirs—Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, has found that by their fourth year in a charter, students learn about 2.5 months more in reading every year and around two more in math than demographically similar students with the same past test scores who stayed in local district schools. In urban districts, by their fourth year students are gaining a little under half a year in reading and a little over in math—every year—over their district peers.

Graduation rates, college-going rates and college completion rates are also higher among students who enroll in charter schools. And as a handful of studies have shown, competition from charters can push district and school leaders to improve their schools, to make them more attractive to parents.

Presidential candidates should worry about how to get Americans the most bang for our education buck. The data show that the answer is to grow the best charters, as Sen. Cory Booker proudly did when he was mayor of Newark, N.J.—something he had the courage to say when debate moderators asked him the charter question. In Wednesday’s debate, other candidates should follow his example.

Mr. Osborne, whose latest book is “Reinventing America’s Schools: Creating a 21st Century Education System,” leads the education work of the Progressive Policy Institute.

Correction
New York state cushions the revenue loss when students transfer to charter schools only for school districts outside New York City, and Illinois has not done so since 2009. An earlier version misstated this.

LEARN MORE

How We Can Help with Your Charter School Enrollment Marketing

It’s never too late to start thinking about upping your charter school enrollment marketing game! Start prepping now for open houses in the spring, and get your summer enrollment marketing efforts planned for summer! Not sure where or how to get going?

Our best-in-class enrollment marketing team can help you:

Increase Traffic: Increase organic traffic by optimizing your website and social media channels
Raise Awareness: Targeted marketing efforts will help raise community awareness of your school, attracting new families and potential future students
Increase Enrollment: Attract more families, engage with them, nurture them, and convert them to boost student enrollment
Retain Students: Retaining your current students is vital to your school’s longevity and more cost effective than attracting and acquiring new ones

Charter School Capital’s Enrollment Marketing Program is designed to positively impact your charter school’s viability by boosting enrollment numbers through targeted marketing efforts. You can choose a program that focuses on generating awareness primarily through digital marketing, or one that also includes “ground game” marketing to convert applicants to enrollment. All efforts will be customized for each school’s unique needs, and may include the following:

DIGITAL MARKETING

Updated Website (if deemed needed) with Spanish language support where appropriate
Organic Search (optimizing website for search results)
Paid Search (Google, Niche)
Landing Pages to Capture Interest
Facebook and Twitter Social Media Engagement
Surveys / School Ratings
Postcards / Brochures
Email Campaigns to Your Parent / Former Parent Lists
Remarketing / Retargeting Online Advertising
Influencer Campaigns
Display and Print Advertising
Yard Signs and other Signage
Radio / Other Advertising – where applicable

THE GROUND GAME

Organizing Open Houses / School Tours

Ensure they’re regularly scheduled and staffed for parents and students to tour school and meet teachers (at least 2x/month)

Organizing Community Meet & Greets

Arrange community meetings in libraries, coffee shops, pizza parlors, etc. for parents to casually meet other families and parents and staff from school to drive interest

Putting up lawn signs, passing out brochures in the community

Going to doctor’s offices, supermarkets, etc. and ensuring community boards have brochures on them
Making sure parents can put up lawn signs for the school in the summer

Providing photos and updates to the Charter School Capital team for social media

Attend events or reaching out to other staff/parents/volunteers to gather photos and stories to share on Facebook and Twitter

Updating Charter School Capital team on school events, community reactions, etc.

Weekly meetings with the Charter School Capital team in first month, bi-weekly thereafter

HOW IT WORKS

PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE OPTIONS

Download our one-page charter school Enrollment Marketing datasheet here

Would you like to see how two schools saw sharp increases in overall web traffic and social media traffic as a result of our enrollment marketing efforts? Download our Enrollment Marketing Results datasheet below.

SEE RESULTS

Digital Marketing for Charter Schools: An Actionable Workbook to Help You Achieve Your School’s Goals!

Scratching your head as to how to go about implementing digital marketing for your charter school? You’re not alone! This free manual will be your go-to guide for all of your school’s digital marketing needs! Download this actionable workbook to help get your marketing plans started, guide you as you define your audience and key differentiators, choose your tactics, and start to build your campaigns.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Charter School Report: Leaders of Color

Editor’s Note: This report was published by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools on November 18, 2019.

Profiles of Leaders of Color: Engaging Families

This is the second in a series of reports to be published by the National Alliance in partnership with Public Impact highlighting the experiences of school leaders of color in charter schools across the country. While the impact school leaders have on student performance has been well documented, there has been little attention to how leaders’ experiences and racial identities inform and influence their practice. While many practices of good leadership are universal, an individual’s identity shapes how they approach situations and can inspire new and innovative practices.

The report includes the profiles of three leaders of color—Maquita Alexander of Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., Freddy Delgado is superintendent/principal at Amigos Por Vida Charter School in Houston, TX, and Kriste Dragon of Citizens of the World Charter Schools, a network of public charter schools with locations in Los Angeles, CA, and Kansas City, MO. Each of these leaders shared the belief that their school should engage families as genuine and active partners in their children’s education and the report identifies the concrete steps they took to put that belief into practice.

DOWNLOAD REPORT

LEARN MORE

Public Charter Schools Give Children an Option to Succeed

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published here on November 18, 2019, by the NY Times, and was written by Cory A. Booker, Democratic senator from New Jersey and a presidential candidate.

We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support school choice, charter school growth, and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. Especially now, when so much is on the line with the upcoming presidential election, we hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable

Cory Booker: Stop Being Dogmatic About Public Charter Schools

We can’t dismiss good ideas because they don’t fit into neat ideological boxes or don’t personally affect some of the louder, more privileged voices in the party.

About 15 years ago, when I was living in Brick Towers, a high-rise, low-income housing community in Newark’s Central Ward, a neighbor stopped me and told me about how her child’s public school was failing its students, like many others in our area at the time. Desperate, she asked if I knew a way to help get her child into a private school. She knew, as all parents do, that a great education was her child’s primary pathway to a better life.

My parents knew this all too well. When I was a baby, they fought to move our family into a community with well-funded public schools. These neighborhoods, especially in the 1960s and ’70s, were often in exclusively white neighborhoods. And because of the color of my parents’ skin, local real estate agents refused to sell my parents a home. My parents responded by enlisting the help of activists and volunteers who then set up a sting operation to demonstrate that our civil rights were being violated. Because of their activism we were eventually able to move into the town where I grew up.

Fifty years later, access to a high-quality public education still often hinges on the ZIP code a child lives in, skin color and the size of the family’s bank account.

Parents in struggling communities across the country are going to extraordinary lengths to try to get their children into great public schools. There is even a trend of children’s guardians using fake addresses to enroll them in better schools in nearby neighborhoods or towns — living in fear of hired investigators who follow children home to verify their addresses.

While millions of families are struggling with this system, we have Republicans in Congress, the White House and state legislatures across the country making problems worse, undermining public education and attacking public-school teachers.

So it is largely up to Democrats — especially those of us in this presidential primary race — to have a better discussion about practical K-12 solutions to ensure that every child in our country can go to a great public school. That discussion needs to include high-achieving public charter schools when local communities call for them.

Many public charter schools have proved to be an effective, targeted tool to give children with few other options a chance to succeed.

For-profit charter school schemes and the anti-public education agenda of President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are hurting teachers, students and their families. Of course, we must fight back against these misguided and harmful forces. But we shouldn’t let the worst actors distort this crucial debate, as they have in recent years.

The treatment by many Democratic politicians of high-performing public charter schools as boogeymen has undermined the fact that many of these schools are serving low-income urban children across the country in ways that are inclusive, equitable, publicly accountable and locally driven.

When I was mayor of Newark, we invested in both traditional public schools and high-performing public charter schools. Following our efforts, the citywide graduation rate rose to 77 percent in 2018 from just above 50 percent a decade ago. Today, Newark is ranked the No. 1 city in America for “beat the odds” high-poverty, high-performance schools by the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

We refused to accept the false choice between supporting public-school teachers and giving parents options for their kids when they had none, and the city worked with our local teacher’s union to give our public school teachers a raise too. And we didn’t just blindly invest in good public charter schools, Newark closed bad ones too.

As Democrats, we can’t continue to fall into the trap of dismissing good ideas because they don’t fit into neat ideological boxes or don’t personally affect some of the louder, more privileged voices in the party. These are not abstract issues for many low-to-middle-income families, and we should have a stronger sense of urgency, and a more courageous empathy, about their plight.

Especially at this moment of crisis for our country, we must be the party of real solutions, not one that threatens schools that work for millions of families who previously lacked good educational options.

As a party, we need to take a holistic approach to improving outcomes for children who are underserved and historically disadvantaged. That must mean significantly increasing funding for public schools, raising teacher pay, fully funding the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, investing in universal preschool, eliminating child poverty — and yes, supporting high-performing public charter schools if and when they are the right fit for a community, are equitable and inclusive, and play by the same rules as other public schools.

As a coalition, we have to acknowledge that our goals for federal education funding will continue to face serious political opposition. Supporting well-regulated public charters, in the meantime, is a meaningful complementary solution. The promise of better schools some day down the road doesn’t do much for children who have to go to schools that fail them today.

The Democratic Party is at its best when we lead with the conviction, above all else, to help people. We fall short of that when we race to embrace poll-tested positions that may help us avoid being yelled at on the internet by an unrepresentative few but don’t reflect the impossible choices many low-income families face.

Our primary litmus test for supporting a policy should be whether it is a good idea that, responsibly implemented, can help those who need it. We must be the party that empowers people and stands with them, not against them for convenient political gain. That’s not just the way we will win. It’s the best way to govern.

Cory A. Booker is a Democratic senator from New Jersey and a presidential candidate.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

LEARN MORE