HB 5917 Summary

• Prevents authorizing bodies from issuing new contracts for public school academies, urban high school academies, or schools of excellence that would operate as successors to failing schools currently on the state's lowest-achieving 5% list or undergoing corrective measures.

• Requires authorizing bodies to disapprove educational management organization (EMO) contracts if the EMO or any affiliated organization operates a school on the lowest-achieving 5% list, strengthening oversight of EMO relationships.

• Mandates that authorizing bodies take corrective action (including contract amendments or revocation) when schools identified as among the lowest-achieving 5% after 4 years of operation are in year 2 of restructuring sanctions under federal law.

• Removes the cap on the number of contracts that state public universities can issue for public school academies after December 31, 2014 (previously capped at 500 through that date).

• Clarifies that failure to comply with mandatory corrective action requirements constitutes a failure to engage in appropriate oversight, allowing the superintendent of public instruction to suspend an authorizing body's power to issue new contracts.