What We’re Up To

We are officially back to school and are loving seeing all the schools’ posts about welcoming students back to classes! Over the summer, we continued working on our Family Meeting Toolkit in preparation to pilot it with families. If you’d like to take a look at the material we have been preparing, let us know! Eric Willard conducted two more 504 Plan & IEP Online Workshops and will continue these important presentations and group discussions this school year.

WA FAB advocates Tiffany Melligan-Smith and Emily McLeod recently developed and launched a 3-workshop series with Rainier Prep called Digital Life. Each workshop, designed for families, highlights a different aspect of digital life from social media and chat platforms to devices. These workshops discuss the benefits and challenges with teens and their social media and device usage and give families practical tips on how to help them and their scholars manage their digital use. If you’d like to learn more about these workshops or have a specific question or need, please contact us! We would love to hear from you.

What’s Going On in the Charter Community

Charter School Renewal Updates

Charter school contracts may be renewed by the authorizer every five years. The goal for each charter school is for the authorizer to grant a full five-year renewal. The authorizer may choose to vary the term based on performance or other circumstances with the school and may grant a shorter-term renewal with specific conditions for improvement being met or may choose to not renew the charter contract at all.

• Impact | Puget Sound Elementary: Last school year, after fulfilling the conditions of their short-term 2-year conditional renewal, Impact | Puget Sound Elementary, was recommended for a short-term subsequent 3-year contract renewal. You can take a look at their renewal materials and reports online.

• Impact | Salish Sea Elementary renewed its contract for the first time after opening its doors for the 2020-21 school year. They were recommended for a full 5-year renewal. You can view their renewal materials and reports online.

• Catalyst: Bremerton is applying for a 5-year renewal and renewal materials and reports can be found online. The renewal decision will be made at the Charter Commission’s October 10th meeting, so please consider providing public comment for this school at the next Commission meeting.

To provide public comment regarding any schools eligible for renewal or expansion, please contact the Commission by:

• Email:  [email protected]

• Phone:  360-725-5511

• Mail: P.O. Box 40996, Olympia, WA 98504-0996

Written or oral public comment at a Commission meeting (instructions may be found on the Commission website here and a schedule of Commission meetings may be found here.)

WA Charter School Commission

Advocacy in Action: IEP & SPED Tips

As equal members of the IEP team, parents play a crucial role in advocating for their child's unique needs and ensuring they receive the support they deserve. If parents feel uncomfortable or unsure, they have the right to bring an advocate or someone with expertise about their child to the meeting, empowering them to confidently push for decisions that will drive their child's success and growth.

Each month, we will feature a new tip from our IEP & SPED Advocate, Eric Willard. If you are in need of advice or advocacy, please reach out to him: [email protected]

Local Charter School Board Meetings

Did you know that all charter public schools have a school board responsible for making sure their school delivers on their promises to their student and communities and fulfills their charter contract? They do this by creating policies and procedures and working together with school leadership.

Each school board has at least one monthly meeting open to the public. Families and other community members are welcome to attend to listen or participate by giving a public comment.

Have something to say? Or just want to keep up on the latest school news? Look up when your next school board meeting is happening, grab a friend, and show up online or in-person to learn more about what’s going on in your school community.

• For Spokane Public Schools Authorized charter schools (Lumen High School and Pride Schools) please go here, then scroll down to find your school, and click on its Board Members & Schedule link.

• For all other charter schools, find your Commission Authorized school here, then click on the school page to find information about your school’s board meeting times and agendas.

Upcoming Community Events

WA Charters Virtual Community Trainings

Advocacy 101: The Ins and Outs of Legislative Session

• When: Tuesday, October 8th at 6:30pm

• Where: Zoom: Use the following link to register: Advocacy 101

Advocacy 201: How to Engage with Decision Makers

• When: Tuesday, November 12th at 6:30pm

• Where: Zoom: Use the following link to register: Advocacy 201

Advocacy 301: Legislative Session Run of Show

• When: Tuesday, December 3rd at 6:30pm

• Where: Zoom: Use the following link to register: Advocacy 301

WA Charter School Commission Meeting

• When: Thursday, October 10th

• Where: (Hybrid) Renton Technical College, Renton, WA

• Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/3607255511
  Dial: (646) 558-8656
  Meeting ID: 360 725 5511

• Agenda & Materials will be posted here. Sign up to make a written or spoken public comment at this link

Support Our Work

If you or an organization you know of would like to support the important family advocacy work that we do, please let us know or donate here.