The California State Board of Education today approved final regulations governing the state's parent empowerment law, also known as the Parent Trigger. The regulations lay out clear guidelines and timetables for parents at failing public schools to petition for certain prescribed reforms. Under the new rules, which should be published later this year, the state would be required to publicize which schools are eligible for the trigger, and would make available model petitions for parents to use. The regs also clarify how parents may appeal adverse rulings by local school boards.
The California Teachers Association had attempted to insert language into the rules that effectively would have given teachers a veto over parents' petition for a charter school, but Board President Michael Kirst rebuffed the effort in July.
Parents in the Compton Unified School District were unsuccessful with their petition to convert the failing McKinley Elementary School into an independent charter. Instead, the charter school operator this week opened two new charter schools just blocks away from McKinley, giving parents the choice they wanted by other means.
Meantime, Michigan Republicans have introduced their own version of the Parent Trigger in the state senate as part of a package of reforms.
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