Existing law requires that a petition for the establishment of a charter school contain a reasonably comprehensive description of the manner by which staff members of a charter school will be covered by the State Teachers’ Retirement System, the Public Employees’ Retirement System, or federal social security. Existing law authorizes a chartering agency to charge for the actual costs of supervisorial oversight of a charter school. Existing law permits a charter school to separately purchase administrative or other services from its chartering agency or other source.

This bill would require a school district or county office of education that is the chartering authority of a charter school to create any reports required by the State Teachers’ Retirement System and the Public Employees’ Retirement System at the request of the charter school. The bill would require the county superintendent of schools, employing agency, or school district that reports to those retirement systems to submit the required reports on behalf of the charter school, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize the chartering authority to charge the charter school for the actual costs of the reporting services. The bill would prohibit a school district or county office of education from requiring a charter school to purchase payroll processing services from it as a condition of providing the reporting services. The bill would also require information submitted on behalf of the charter school to be in a format conforming to the requirements of the retirement systems. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.