NOLA Public Schools has led a dramatic increase in the number of students meeting academic proficiency standards, and the performance gap between students in Orleans Parish and Louisiana as a whole dramatically decreased between 2005-2019. The impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic hit urban districts particularly hard, and New Orleans was no exception. Despite this, the district has had amongst the highest levels of improvement in the state of Louisiana since the pandemic.
Every student in New Orleans deserves equal access to high quality schools where their interests will come first, where they and their families will have choice, and where educators will have the tools and support they need to be successful. Please view the Profile At-a-Glance for Charter Applicants for more information on the district.
The NOLA Public Schools Request For Applications began on September 6, 2024 and a detailed timeline is provided below. If you are interested in applying after the deadline for applications has passed, you may use the materials and information from previous charter cycles below as a reference, however, please note that the application may be updated annually, and thus there may be changes to the upcoming cycle's application in comparison with the previous year's application.
District Authorizing Priorities
The Orleans Parish School Board regularly adopts a set of district authorizing priorities to guide its charter authorization process. These priorities outline what the district seeks in operators to expand high-quality options for families. Setting clear District Authorizing Priorities informs recruitment strategies for new operators and expansion of existing operators; provides transparency in the charter application process of the district’s objectives; and informs the Superintendent’s decision to approve new schools.
Please note the following section from the District Authorizing Priorities (entire document is linked below):
NOLA Public Schools is committed to the optimization of the district. This means that by making strategic portfolio decisions families have high-quality options, schools have the funding they need for improved programming and teacher salaries, and buildings are of the highest quality and are being fully utilized. As such, the district is seeking to have a strong bench of operators available to transform a school, should the need arise. While the district does not anticipate newly approved charter applicants opening new schools in the near future, applicants for new schools are welcome to apply.
District Authorizing Priorities
Fall 2024 RFA Cycle
In compliance with R.S. 17:3982, the Orleans Parish School Board is making public through our website and in printed form upon request, the guidelines for submitting a charter proposal, all forms required for submission of a charter proposal, the timelines established for accepting and reviewing charter proposals, the process that will be used to review charter proposals submitted to the board, and the name and contact information for a primary point of contact for charter proposals. NOLA Public Schools Profile At-a-Glance, 2023 Charter RFA Applicant Training Deck, 2024 and Recording of Charter RFA Applicant Info Session, 2024 2024 Charter Application Standards, New Operator
Any organization or individual may become eligible to submit an application by meeting specific eligibility requirements as outlined in the Eligibility Determination document and submitting a Letter of Intent. In order to be eligible to submit a full application in the NOLA Public Schools' Fall 2024 Charter Request for Applications process all Eligibility Determination and Letter of Intent are due to charterapp@nolapublicschools.com by October 15, 2024 at 12PM CST.
Application materials are below. If you have any questions please contact Anne-Lise McCarver at amccarver@nolapublicschools.com.
The documents linked below are needed to complete a charter application. They are attached in Word to make it easier for applicants to copy the questions into their own documents, but applicants are required to submit their documents via PDF, except for the Overview Template.
The Eligibility Documentation, which includes the directions for what to include in the Letter of Intent, is due by October 15, 2024 by 12:00PM Central Time.
The full application is due by October 25, 2024 by 12:00PM Central Time. Those materials are below:
Additional Resources:
Louisiana Department of Education's Charter Applicant Toolbox
Fall 2024 Submitted Eligible Applications
Hope Community School
Start a Charter School
The Fall 2024 charter application cycle has closed. The Fall 2025 cycle will likely open at the beginning of September. Resources from prior application cycles are available further down on this page.
District Primary Contact
For any questions regarding opening a charter school in New Orleans, and/or the application process, please contact Anne-Lise McCarver, Executive Director of Portfolio Innovation, at amccarver@nolapublicschools.com or 504-359-9584.
