Nine New Charters Get Preliminary Approval from New Jersey Commissioner

Here's the list:

Ailanthus Charter School, Franklin Township, New Brunswick (Somerset County); K-1 progressing to K-4/ 120 to 300 student

College Achieve Greater Asbury Park Charter School, Asbury Park Public Schools and Neptune Township Public Schools (Monmouth County); Pre-K-1 with 5 and 6 progressing to Pre-K to 9th/ 314 to 1,038 students

College Achieve Paterson Charter School, Paterson (Passaic County); Pre-K-1 with 5 and 6 progressing to Pre-K to 9th/ 314 to 1,038 students

Elite Academy Charter School, Jersey City (Hudson County); K-2 progressing to K-5/ 240 to 480 students

Fulbright Academy Charter School of Montclair, Montclair (Essex County); K-4 progressing to K-8/ 250 to 450 students

Innovation STEM Charter School, Newark (Essex County); K-1 progressing to K-4/ 120 to 300 students

Ocean Academy Charter School, Lakewood (Ocean County); K-2 progressing to K-5 /160 to 340 students

The Holistic Charter School for Behavior Therapy, Howell and Lakewood (Monmouth and Ocean Counties); K-2 progressing to K-5/ 18 to 36 students

Universal Business Academy, Englewood (Bergen County), 6th grade progressing to Grades 6-8/ 104 to 312 students

See coverage from NJ Spotlight and the Star-Ledger. Fifteen other charter applications were rejected or disqualified. The nine approved applications now move on to Phase II; if they pass that second round they would open in September 2017.

One interesting note: The Holistic Charter School for Behavioral Therapy, which would serve children on the autism spectrum, was denied approval last year because the D.O.E. was concerned that a school specifically for students with disabilities would violate N.J.'s charter school law by not serving a "representative sample" of children, among other objections that I described here. It's good to see the that even bureaucracies can evolve in positive ways.

Labels: charter schools, special education