Charter School Development

Charter School Development Resources

Interested in starting, expanding, or replicating a charter school in Colorado? The Schools of Choice Unit has put together a variety of resources and contacts to help support charter school developers. Although this is not an exhaustive list, these resources could help provide guidance in exploring what is needed to begin the planning process.

If you have additional questions about these resources or the planning process please email us at: soc@cde.state.co.us.

New Charter School Development Resources

Charter School Readiness Checklist & Mentoring Plan Example

Under the Charter School Program Grant, the CDE Charter School Office contracted with the Community Training and Assistance Center to offer free mentoring for people interested in opening, replicating, or expanding a charter school in Colorado. As part of the mentoring process, CTAC would ask mentees to complete a 'readiness checklist' to guide the mentoring process. Once the checklist was completed, CTAC would create a mentoring plan. Here you will find an example of the readiness checklists as well as a mentoring plan.

CDE SOC Charter School Development Summits (Bootcamps)

23-24 Charter Development Summit
Charter Development Summit 2023 (formerly known as Bootcamp)
Past CDE Charter School Bootcamps

Charter School Development Summit Webinars

Leading up to the in-person Charter Development Summit, in 2023-24 we hosted a series of three webinars focusing on charter school development.

Webinar One: The Ups and Downs of Opening a Charter School in Colorado

Webinar Two: Expanding Quality and Access to your Mission: Charter Replication, Expansion and Growth in Colorado

Webinar Three: Community Engagement

New Charter School Application Examples

Academy for Advanced & Creative Learning (AACL) (78 pages)
SOAR Charter School (67 pages)
Two Roads High School (24 pages)

Other Resources not associated with CDE

Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers: This mission of the Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers (CACSA) is to promote and support best practices in charter school authorizing and to help all Colorado charter school authorizers develop, adopt, and implement practices that improve results for all students.

Colorado League of Charter Schools: The Colorado League of Charter Schools is the charter support organization for Colorado.

National Charter School Resource Center: NCSRC is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Charter School Programs (CSP) and is a source for high-quality charter school resources and CSP grantee technical assistance.