Rhode Island's Charter Public Schools

Resources for Families and Community

Visit EnrollRI.org/charter to learn more! 

Enrollment in a charter public school is nonselective and conducted by random lottery. 

Use the Family Information Tool (FIT) to find the school(s) that meets the performance, accessibility, and programmatic targets you are seeking. Next, use the EnrollRI Common Application to apply to any participating charter schools you are interested in and for which your child is eligible to attend.

State of Rhode Island's Charter Public Schools: a report providing data and descriptive information on charter public schools across Rhode Island. - April 2014 [PDF]

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): This document addresses many common questions about charter public schools in Rhode Island. [PDF]

Resources for Charter School Administrators

• Governance Handbook
• Lottery and Enrollment Guidance

Charter Public School Accountability

In addition to being classified just as any other Rhode Island public school, charter public schools are reviewed and held accountable for meeting student academic and organizational performance goals and face charter revocation or non renewal if they under-perform. If successful, each charter may be granted a term for up to 5 years.

Please review the Charter Performance Review System Handbook for more detail on the charter performance indicators and information about the renewal process.

Charter public schools in Rhode Island are held to common measures of academic, financial and organizational performance. Specifically:

• Student Academic Performance
• Financial Performance
• Organizational Performance
• Legal, Regulatory and Charter Contract Compliance

The handbook has been updated to reflect the revised Statewide Accountability System in alignment with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Each year beginning with the 2016-17 school year, RIDE compiles an annual Charter School Performance Dashboard, for each charter public school, based on the indicators above. The report template can be found here.

Charter School Financial Reporting

Rhode Island General Law § 16-77-3.1 (f) states: “All charter public schools shall adhere to financial record keeping, reporting, auditing requirements, and procedures as required by the Rhode Island department of education and in accordance with federal and state laws and regulations.”

This quick guide provides an overview of reporting deadlines for financial reports.

District-Charter Collaboration Awards, 2022-2023 

The Office of School Opportunities, at the Rhode Island Department of Education, awarded grants to district-charter partnerships, with the explicit purpose of creating and sustaining collaboration in the two sectors. These projects were: 

Afterschool Programming in Central Falls 

• Blackstone Valley Prep (BVP), Blackstone Academy, Segue Institute for Learning, The Learning Community, Central Falls Public Schools, and the City of Central Falls all applied to focus on strengthening and sharing afterschool programs across the city of Central Falls through the hiring of a shared afterschool program coordinator. 

Enrollment Landscape Analysis in Providence 

• Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts (TAPA) and Providence Public Schools (PPSD) applied to lead the next phase of work on Unified Enrollment, including reviving stakeholder engagement and contracting a landscape analysis to inform all charters on what is needed to move toward a robust Unified Enrollment system. 

Multilingual Learner Consortium and Professional Development 

• Charette Charter, Village Green, Nowell Academy, Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College, Providence Preparatory Academy, UCAP, and PPSD applied to hire a shared MLL Specialist to lead shared professional development and consortium work geared towards supporting multilingual learners. 

Learn more about RIDE’s District-Charter Collaboration work here:  

"Building a “Transformative” Partnership between Charter and District-Managed Schools in Rhode Island: Design and Implementation of RIDE’s District-Charter Collaboration Grants" (PDF, 3,695K)

Urban Core Education Summit

The Rhode Island Department of Education served as host to a meeting series called the "The Urban Core Education Summit," where we laid the foundation for collaboration between school leaders in Providence Public Schools, Central Falls Public Schools, and charter schools in those cities. This initiative launched in Summer 2021 and is ongoing.

The core objectives are relationship building and identifying common areas for further discussion and potential collaboration. The summit was facilitated by Dr. Kenneth Wong, Annenberg Professor and Director of the Urban Education Policy program at Brown University.



For further questions and/or comments, please contact RICharters@ride.ri.gov.

Any other examples of Sharing Practices between Charters and Traditional Schools that you want to share?

Please contact RICharters@ride.ri.gov. We would love to share it!

Charter Support Initiative Projects, 2023-2024 

The Office of School Opportunities, through the Charter Support Initiative, has provided sub-awards to projects that pull multiple schools and districts together and encourages collaboration that benefits all students. These projects are: 

Root Literacy Design Partnership 

Awarded to the following Schools: 

• The Compass School 

• The Kingston Hill Academy 

Learn more about The Rhode Island Science of Reading Conference, hosted by The Compass School. You may also visit the Root Literacy Design page to learn more about future trainings and opportunities.

High-Quality Dual Language and Bilingual Curriculum Development and Implementation 

Awarded to the following schools: 

• The International Charter School 

• Nuestro Mundo Public Charter School 

Data Wise Improvement Process Professional Learning Community 

Awarded to the following schools: 

• The Paul Cuffee School 

• Blackstone Valley Prep 

• The Greene School 

• RISE Prep Mayoral Academy 

• Southside Elementary Charter School 

Square Mile PM Academy: After School Program Extension 

Awarded to the following schools: 

• The Segue Institute for Learning, in partnership with other middle schools, both charter and traditional, in the city of Central Falls. 

Data Coaching and Planning Initiative  

Awarded to the following schools: 

• Blackstone Academy Charter School 

• Charette High School 

There are currently no items associated with the Office of School Opportunities open for public feedback.

If any major amendments to any charters are proposed in the future, information can be found here.