Charter School Oversight Report June 21, 2019
Charter school:
Current grade levels:
Site visit date:
Designated authorizer contact:

OCSA
Grade 7-12
May 22, 2019
Marjorie Cochran, Ed.D.

Review Team
Name
Marjorie Cochran, Ed.D.
Emily Wolk, Ph.D.
Robyn MacNair

YN
NA
Y
Y
Y

Y

Title
Charter Liaison
Executive Director, Research and Evaluation
VAPA Coordinator

General Requirements
A. Attendance and Enrollment
1. What attendance accounting system is used and who is the assigned individual responsible for taking
student attendance daily?
2. A board-approved charter school calendar and class bell schedule with instructional minutes has been
submitted.
3. There are a minimum of 175 instructional days and the following minimum minutes of instruction:
a. Kindergarten = 36,000
b. Grades 1-3 = 50,400
c. Grades 4-8 = 54,000
d. Grades 9-12 = 64,800
4. Independent study ADA appears to meet all state requirements.

YN
NA

B. Educational Program

Y
Y

5. The school is following its curricular and instructional plan as presented in charter.
6. Parents are informed about the transferability of courses to other public high schools and the eligibility of
courses to meet college entrance requirements (high school only).
7. The charter school has requested accreditation through the Western Association of Schools and colleges
(WASC) and has provided the authorizer with initial and midterm reports.
8. The charter school offers courses that meet the University of California (UC) and the California State
University (CSU) A-G admission criteria, as applicable (high school only).
9. The charter school has provided the authorizer with a list of adopted instructional materials.
10. All students have standards-based instructional materials available to them.
11. Charter school is providing sufficient staff development and training to carry out the educational program.
12. Students who are achieving significantly below or significantly above grade level are receiving instruction
that addresses their learning differences and the school identifies specific plans to address all areas
needing improvement.
13. The charter school is implementing a framework for instructional design that is aligned with the needs of
the students identified as the target population in the charter.
14. The charter school is implementing Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y

Y
Y

YN
NA

Services to Students Who Are English Learners

Y

15. The charter school demonstrates an understanding of and capacity to comply with state and federal
requirements regarding identifying and educating English learner students.
16. The charter school follows a process to identify, monitor and reclassify students who are English learners,
and can provide reclassification data to measure success.

Y

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 Y
N

17. The charter school uses instructional curricula and materials that address the specific needs of English
learners.
18. The charter school provides access to grade-level core curricula for English learners.

YN
NA

Ongoing Assessment

Y

19. The charter school is implementing a plan for collecting, analyzing and reporting data on pupil
achievement and using the data continually to monitor and improve its educational program.
20. The charter school uses measures, targets and other student data to show academic performance.

Y

YN
NA

Academic Performance

Y

21. The academic performance of the charter school is at least equal to the academic performance of the
public schools that the charter school pupils would otherwise have been required to attend, as well as the
academic performance of the schools in the school district in which the charter school is located.
22. The charter school met or pursued the pupil outcomes identified in the charter.
23. The charter school has provided the authorizer with CAASPP and SBAC results

Y
Y

YN
NA

Admissions

N
Y

24. The charter school is complying with the admissions practices described in the charter.
25. The charter school has provided the authorizer with a copy of the enrollment package and application
form.
26. Enrollment forms indicate compliance with all applicable laws and with the charter.
27. If the charter school has need to use a lottery system to determine which students will be allowed to enroll,
there is documentation that the process was held in the manner described in the approved petition.
28. Recognizing the limitations on admissions to charter schools imposed by EC 47605(d), the means by
which the school will achieve a racial and ethnic balance among its pupils that is reflective of the general
population residing within the territorial jurisdiction of the school district as required by EC 47605(b)(5)(G),
shall be presumed to have been met, absent specific information to the contrary. There is no information
gathered that leads the authorizer to believe the contrary.

N
N
N

YN
NA

C. Health and Safety

Y

29. The charter school has a comprehensive health, safety, disaster preparedness and emergency plan for
students and employees that address seismic safety, natural disasters, fire emergencies, earthquakes,
civil disorder, accidents, injuries, and other threats to the health and safety of students and staff.
30. Staff is trained in health, safety and emergency procedures.
31. The charter school maintains a calendar of emergency drills for each site.

Y
Y

Findings
Services to Students Who Are English Learners 17. The program described for supporting ELs indicates
that it varies from year to year. There is not a consistent plan because the numbers of ELs enrolled at
OCSA were reportedly very low – 12 for the 2018-2019 school year. As a follow up, the current LCAP was
reviewed. It was noted that no actions have been specifically designated to support ELs.
Admissions 24 and 27. The 2016 OSCA charter renewal (Element 8) indicates that “Students will be rankordered based on established audition rubrics. Students will be selected for each conservatory program
based on their place in this rank-order. Should there be more “Qualified” students than enrollment slots
allow, Qualified, in this case defined as those students who have met both the Academic and Audition
requirements, then a public random drawing will be held to determine student enrollment.”
And “Admission practices will be administered in accordance with provisions defined by charter school law. If
the number of students who wish to attend OCHSA exceeds capacity, among equally qualified applicants,
preference will be extended to pupils who reside in the District.”
However, the process for selecting students for enrollment in the event that there are more qualified
students than slots available, as described by OCSA staff during the site visit, was that students would be
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 ranked based on both audition and academic criteria for each conservatory, and then selected based on this
ranking.
Effective January 1, 2018, Education Code 47605(d)(2) has an updated definition of a reasonably
comprehensive description of a charter’s admissions policies as follows:
(d)(2)(A) A charter school shall admit all pupils who wish to attend the charter school.
(B) If the number of pupils who wish to attend the charter school exceeds the charter school's capacity,
attendance, except for existing pupils of the charter school, shall be determined by a public random
drawing. Preference shall be extended to pupils currently attending the charter school and pupils who
reside in the school district except as provided for in Section 47614.5. Preferences, including, but not
limited to, siblings of pupils admitted or attending the charter school and children of the charter school's
teachers, staff, and founders identified in the initial charter, may also be permitted by the chartering
authority on an individual charter school basis. Priority order for any preference shall be determined
in the charter petition in accordance with all of the following:
(i) Each type of preference shall be approved by the chartering authority at a public hearing.
(ii) Preferences shall be consistent with federal law, the California Constitution, and Section 200.
(iii) Preferences shall not result in limiting enrollment access for pupils with disabilities, academically
low-achieving pupils, English learners, neglected or delinquent pupils, homeless pupils, or pupils who
are economically disadvantaged, as determined by eligibility for any free or reduced-price meal
program, foster youth, or pupils based on nationality, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
Admissions 26. OCSA enrollment documents include a request “to bring a photocopy of the child’s valid
State Birth Certificate, or photocopy of valid/unexpired US Passport, or photocopy of valid/unexpired out
of country passport, or Visa/Green Card.”
K-12 Model Policies (AB-699) prohibits school districts and LEAs from collecting birth certificates and
entry date information during the enrollment process. Instead, LEAs “shall solicit that documentation or
information separately from the school enrollment process.” As of February 25, 2019, LEAs, including
independently operated charter schools, were required to revise their enrollment process so that the required
collection and documenting of information related to a student’s national origin (i.e. information regarding
birthplace, entry date into the U.S., date of first enrollment in U.S., etc.) to satisfy certain federal reporting
requirements is handled separately from the initial enrollment process.
Admissions 28. In reviewing whether or not OCSA is maintaining a racial and ethnic balance reflective of
SAUSD, the 2018-2019 Enrollment reports (CDE website) were reviewed. The charts below, copied from the
CDE website, clearly show that OSCA’s demographics are not reflective of the racial and ethnic balance of
the general population residing within the territorial jurisdiction of the school district as required by EC
47605(b)(5)(G) with regards to English learners and socio-economically disadvantaged subgroups nor
Hispanic/Latino, Asian, and White ethnic groups. Further, OCSA racial and ethnic makeup is also not
reflective of Orange County for Hispanic/Latino and White ethnic groups.

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 OCSA

SAUSD

Recommendations
17: Update services to ELs annually in the English Learner Plan. Include one or more actions within the
LCAP designated to specifically support ELs (as opposed to all students).
24 and 27: In the event that there are more qualified students than slots available, in compliance with the
most recent charter petition and Education Code 47605(d)(2), OSCA is expected to conduct a public random
drawing for each conservatory that is impacted after giving priority, per existing charter language, to students
residing in the Santa Ana Unified School District attendance area.
26 and 28: Establish a second round of documentation collection and student academic or demographic
data review that takes place only after students are officially enrolled in the school. This second round of
data/document collection could include a photocopy of the child’s valid State Birth Certificate, or photocopy
of valid/unexpired US Passport, or photocopy of valid/unexpired out of country passport, or Visa/Green Card
as well as any academic or demographic review (including CalPads) regarding EL status, Soco-economic
status and academic grades. Ensure that priority is extended, per existing charter language, to students
residing in the Santa Ana Unified School District attendance area. Note that academic requirements for
admission are not defined in any way in the current charter renewal.
Reviewers
Marjorie Cochran, Robyn MacNair, Emily Wolk

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