Preliminary Charter FIRST Ratings 2018-2019

Your charter school’s preliminary 2018–2019 Charter Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) rating is now available online. To access your charter school’s Charter FIRST rating:

access the Texas Education Agency (TEA) website: http://tea.texas.gov/;

click the Finance and Grants webpage tab link: http://tea.texas.gov/Finance_and_Grants/; 

click the Financial Accountability link;

click the Charter FIRST link; and

click the 2011—2012 and newer Charter School - Financial Accountability (Select Year from Dropdown) Ratings link.

Basis for Charter FIRST Rating

Your charter school’s rating is based on an analysis of the charter school’s financial data for fiscal year 2018 (the fiscal period ended June 30, 2018, or August 31, 2018, depending on the ending date of your charter school’s fiscal year). We determined your charter school’s rating using the financial indicators specified in 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) §109.1001(f).

Please carefully review your charter school’s preliminary Charter FIRST rating and the data associated with each of the 15 indicators.

Opportunity for Appeal

If your charter school wishes to appeal an adverse issue it identifies in the preliminary rating, your charter school may submit a written appeal with supporting evidence to the TEA Financial Compliance Division. For the appeal to be considered, we must receive it by September 9, 2019. Send any appeal to the following address:

Texas Education Agency

Financial Compliance Division

1701 North Congress Avenue

Austin, TX 78701

Please see 19 TAC §109.1001(n) for the rules regarding the filing of an appeal. As stated in that section, we will consider only an appeal that would result in a change to your charter school’s rating. If no appeal is submitted by your charter school, the preliminary rating becomes final on the 31^st day after the preliminary ratings are released (September 10, 2019).

Final Charter FIRST Rating and Required Reporting

We will issue final ratings to charter schools after we have reviewed any submitted appeals. Final 2018­–2019 Charter FIRST ratings are anticipated to be released in October 2019. 

Within two months of the release of its final Charter FIRST rating, your charter school must announce and hold a public meeting to distribute a financial management report that explains the charter school’s rating and its performance under each indicator for the current and previous year’s ratings. The report also must provide the financial information described in 19 TAC §109.1001(q)(3). We encourage your charter school to include in the report additional information that will be beneficial to stakeholders, especially information explaining any special circumstances that may have affected the charter school’s performance under one or more of the indicators.

The required newspaper notice to inform taxpayers of the meeting must be published no more than 30 days and no fewer than 10 days before the public meeting. Your charter school may combine the meeting with a scheduled regular meeting of your charter school’s governing board.

For full requirements related to the report and meeting, see 19 TAC §109.1001(q). For a template that your charter school can use in developing its financial management report, see the TEA Charter FIRST web page.

Accreditation Status

Please note that the TEA considers a charter school’s Charter FIRST rating when assigning an accreditation status, as required by the accreditation status rules in 19 TAC §97.1055.

Contact for Further Information

If you have questions about your charter school’s Charter FIRST rating, please contact Rita Bunton at (512) 936-3712 or by email at Rita.Bunton@tea.texas.gov.