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[Tripon]

First article quoted is an Op Ed.

This academic year, thousands of San Diego students have seen their schools thrown into jeopardy courtesy of a new interpretation of an unchanged law. More than 25,000 students attend 43 nonclassroom-based (NCB) charter schools in San Diego County.

NCB students work from home, at their own pace, and schedule a mixture of classroom time and independent learning. In order to provide support, NCB schools set up resource centers where students go to check in with teachers and counselors, take classes, and participate in extracurricular activities. Students also receive special education and English language learner services and take state tests at these centers.

Since 2002, the California Department of Education has guided these free public schools to operate resource centers outside of their authorizing district, yet within the county, to best serve their students. In 2013, a school district challenged the legality of this because of the geographic site-based school restriction found in the Charter Schools Act.

Although the charter school won the initial court decision, the appellate court overturned the decision. While Education Code permits NCB schools to enroll students throughout the county as well as adjacent counties, this new interpretation is making it impossible to provide a free and appropriate education for them.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...harter-schools-california-20170519-story.html

Why this is an issue. The schools being closed are charter schools [Julian Union School District] authorized by a school district where the schools aren't located within their boundaries.

A SSan Diego Superior Court judge ordered two Julian charter schools to close by June 30, but the state Board of Education has intervened and given them a year's reprieve.

Judge Donal B. Donnelly ruled in April that the facilities operated by Julian Charter School Alpine Academy and Diego Valley Public Charter violate the state's Charter School Act because they don't reside within the boundaries of their overseeing school district.

”Diego Valley and Julian Charter have not made any attempts to change their operations to comply," the ruling said. Instead, they ”advance arguments that the continued operation of their [out-of-district] resource centers is legal."

Julian Union School District was ordered to revoke the charters of both schools, which account for more than 75 percent of the district's total student population. Earlier this month, the California State Board of Education granted a waiver allowing the charters another year to comply with state law.

Why a school district would authorize a charter school in another school's district area.

The Julian Union School District educated fewer than 300 local students from the community in the 2015-16 school year. It gets about 3,000 additional students from throughout the region who attend classes and work with teachers in dozens of storefront schools, operated by independent charters the district authorized.

The arrangement has brought in millions of dollars in charter revenue to a small district, since it receives up to 3 percent of a charter school's revenue to offset the cost of providing oversight and other services.

In the 2014-15 school year, Julian took in $787,887 in revenue from charter schools. The district's total revenue that year was $6.2 million.

Court records show the Julian Charter and Diego Valley set up more than a dozen teaching facilities known as ”resource centers" throughout the county.

Seven of them were located inside the boundaries of San Diego Unified and Grossmont Union school districts, which took legal action starting in October 2015.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/sd-me-julian-charter-20170520-story.html

My two cents: I'm not the biggest fan of Independent study programs in general. They're not rigorous enough, and usually the students who are in it are either on their last stop before facing court issues due to attendance issues or going to juvenile detention.