NACSA’s Financial Oversight Resource

The full financial impact of COVID-19 on charter schooling is unknown, but financial challenges lie ahead this year and beyond. But not all schools will feel the financial impact of COVID-19 equally. That’s why authorizers must play both an oversight and advocacy role in supporting charter schools as they work through short- and long-term financial challenges.  

At NACSA we’ve gathered a working group of authorizers, lenders, consultants, financial services providers, and other stakeholders to consider the financial impact on charter schools, and the role of authorizers in navigating that impact. Schools must have access to the resources they need to effectively educate students—and must properly manage those resources—in order to serve students and communities well. 

The following financial oversight resources provide authorizers with key guidance, as well as tools and sample effective practices from authorizers and Financial Service Providers (FSPs), on school budgeting and financial planning, school oversight and monitoring, and the role of the authorizer, right now.  

Authorizers need to work together with charter schools to plan for and mitigate potential budgetary challenges, while at the same time advocating for adequate funding for charters. For some authorizers, this may mean making minimal changes to how they work. Other authorizers may need to adjust their systems and, in some cases, adopt new authorizing best practices for financial oversight without adding layers of unnecessary compliance burdens on school operators.  

Authorizers cannot do this work alone: they must partner with communities—including schools and lenders—to ensure that all students have access to schools that meet their academic and social-emotional needs.  

This suite of resources includes: 

• Part 1: Financial Monitoring and Oversight
• Part 2: School Budgeting and Financial Planning
• Part 3: The Role of the Authorizer

Visit AuthoRISE—NACSA’s comprehensive digital learning community—to access the full resource suite as well as other resources to strengthen your authorizing practices. Anyone can access all of our new COVID-19 resources in AuthoRISE by emailing [email protected]  and requesting a login. 

This resource was developed by and in collaboration with:  

Karega Rausch, NACSA; David Greenberg, NACSA; Adrian Ruiz, Raza Development Fund; Barb Acenowr, SUNY; Brittany Bennet, Self-Help; Bryan Hassel, Public Impact; Brian Dickey, Indianapolis ISD; James Bentley, Indiana Charter School Board; Jim Ford, Ford Research and Solutions, Inc.; Paul O’Neill, National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools and Todd Ziebarth, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools