Charter School Law

Drawing on decades of experience in the public and private sectors, the firm provides a wide variety of services in the field of education law. The firm has handled matters including:

• Applications to operate a charter school
• Appeals of school board determinations
• Renewal of charter agreements
• Litigation before courts and the PA Department of Education
• Drafting board policies
• Review of vendor contracts
• Right to Know requests
• Governance issues
• Student discipline and expulsion
• Employment matters
• Real estate leasing and purchase
• Construction and expansion projects
• Acquiring tax exempt status
• Negotiation of school management company contracts and operating agreements
• Special education issues

Other Practice Areas

In addition to representing charter schools, the firm is competent and experienced with handling issues arising under:

Non-profit Corporation Law

• As hybrids of non-profit corporations and governmental entities, charter schools face compliance and governance issues that require special expertise. We can train board members in the procedural rigors of decsionmaking in a way that ensures compliance with applicable law.

Right to Know Law

• Pennsylvania changed its Right to Know law in early 2009. Charter schools are covered by the law, and compliance can often be burdensome without efficient procedures to respond to requests for records. We help schools set up processes that ensure compliance without unnecessary cost and delay.

Ethics Act

• School board members and other administrators are covered by the Ethics act. We have advised schools are a variety of ethics issues, from disclosure to conflicts of interest.

Sunshine Act

• Charter school decisionmaking must be transparent. We can help schools develop systems of operation that, once made routine, makes continued compliance run smoothly.

Special Education

• We can assist charter schools navigate a range of issues under statutes, regulations, and agency policies that relate to students with disabilities.

Tax Exemption and Finance

• Drawing on Bob's background as a public finance attorney, the firm can issue advice and assistance on a spectrum of finance issues, including achieving and maintaining tax exempt status.

If a matter involves issues clearly outside our scope of practice, we are allied with a network of attorneys having a variety of specialized expertise.