This bill adds a new section to chapter 28A.710 RCW that allows a surrendered, revoked, or not-renewed charter contract to be reassigned and authorized by the commission to an applicant who meets the procedural and application requirements in RCW 28A.710.130 and 28A.710.140, and it directs the commission to give preference to applications for charter schools designed to enroll and serve at-risk student populations. The reassignment authority in the new section is explicitly not subject to RCW 28A.710.150(1)(a). The bill also amends RCW 28A.710.150 to set numeric limits: no more than 40 charter public schools may be established over the five-year period beginning April 3, 2016; no more than eight may be established in any year during that period with unused annual slots carryable to later years within the period; and no more than 24 charter schools established under the chapter may operate at any one time. The bill creates new procedural requirements: before final authorization the state board of education must certify compliance with the statutory limits; authorizers must, within 10 days of approving or denying an application under RCW 28A.710.140, submit a report to the applicant and the state board including the authorizer’s resolution, reasons for the decision, assurances of compliance with the procedural and application requirements in RCW 28A.710.130 and RCW 28A.710.140, and whether the charter is designed to serve at-risk students. The state board must set the latest annual date for those submissions each year in the applicable timeline, notify authorizers at least six months before that date, certify whether approved charters comply with maximum-number limits upon notice, use a lottery to select approved charters for implementation and assign implementation dates if simultaneous approvals exceed annual limits, and notify authorizers when the maximum allowable number has been reached. The extracted text does not provide the new section number added to chapter 28A.710, definitions or statutory roles for “the commission” and “authorizer,” the detailed procedural or timeline provisions contained in RCW 28A.710.130 and 28A.710.140, or the substance of RCW 28A.710.150(1)(a) that reassignment is excluded from; those specifics are therefore uncertain from the provided material.

If enacted, the bill would let the commission reassign charter contracts that were surrendered, revoked, or not renewed to new applicants who meet existing application rules, with a clear preference for schools serving at-risk students. It also caps growth: up to 40 new charter schools may be authorized over the five-year period beginning April 3, 2016, no more than eight can be authorized in any single year (unused slots can carry forward within that period), and no more than 24 charter schools may operate at the same time. The state Board of Education must certify compliance with those caps before final authorization, run a lottery and assign implementation dates if more approvals come in than allowed for a year, and notify authorizers when the maximum is reached. The most affected parties are the commission (gains authority to reassign contracts), authorizers (now required to file a detailed report within 10 days of approving or denying an application and to meet new timing notices), the state Board of Education (added certification, deadline-setting, lottery and notification duties), applicants for reassigned contracts (new opportunity, especially if targeting at-risk students), and charter operators (growth and operation limited). Expect additional administrative workload and timing constraints for authorizers and the state board; the limits will restrict how many new charters can open and when. Important details are missing from the extracted facts — such as exact roles of “the commission” and “authorizer,” the content of the referenced application rules, the new section number, and what is relieved by exempting reassignments from RCW 28A.710.150(1)(a) — so how these changes work in practice has some uncertainty.