Charter Oversight and Support

Charter schools are innovative, independent public schools that students may choose to attend.  In exchange for operational autonomy in areas such as curricular, staffing, and budgetary decision-making, all charter schools in Louisiana are held accountable for meeting student achievement goals and organizational and financial performance goals either by a local school board or by BESE. 

Local school boards establish charter school performance goals with each charter school board and hold schools accountable through locally-designed performance frameworks.  The Department holds BESE-authorized charter schools accountable using the framework articulated in the Charter School Performance Compact


charter schools authorized by local school boards

Type 1: New school • Local school board authorized • 45 schools

Type 3: Conversion school • Local school board authorized • 15 schools

Type 3B: Former Type 5 charter school transferred from RSD back to local school system • 41 schools


charter schools authorized by BESE

Type 2: New or conversion school • BESE authorized • 40 schools

Type 4: New or conversion school • Local school board & BESE authorized • 1 school

Type 5: Recovery School District schools • BESE-authorized • 5 schools