BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A new wave of proposed charter schools is making its case to Alabama communities.
Over the next two weeks, five charter school operators are holding public forums as they seek approval to open schools in 2027-28. The hearings mark the latest phase of continued growth in Alabama’s charter sector, which now includes 18 schools operating 25 campuses and enrolling 8,800 students statewide, with more schools already approved to open in 2026 and 2027.
The first of those five forums was held Thursday night in Dothan, where Time Leadership Academy hopes to open at the start of the 2027-28 school year. More than fifty people packed the Calvary Baptist Church Fellowship Hall and heard from not only founder Nate Patterson, but also nearly 20 supporters about the need for the charter school.
Patterson told the community that while the local school district is working tirelessly, there are students who are not being served well in the public school system. He believes the Academy can help change that.
“Our mission is preparing students in grades K-8 to be confident leaders and change makers through a rigorous, student centered learning environment,” he said.
The remaining forums are scheduled as follows:
- Xtreme Academy – April 21, 5:30 p.m. Birmingham
- Pathways in Education – April 22, 5:30 p.m. Tuscaloosa
- Florecer – April 28, 5:30 p.m. Birmingham
- C.A. Fredd, Jr., Career and Tech Academy – April 30, 5:30 p.m. Tuscaloosa
The forums are part of a lengthy application process intended to help operators demonstrate public support and give opponents a chance to be heard.
The application process is nearly complete for these five schools, according to Logan Searcy, the Executive Director for the Alabama Public Charter School Commission.
“We are evaluating them, and we will give a report to the applicant, as we will to our commissioners, and then our commissioners will consider that vote on May 4,” she said.
If approved, the schools would join a charter sector that has continued to grow since Alabama lawmakers authorized charter schools in 2015. Even so, charter schools still enroll only a small share of Alabama’s roughly 720,000 students statewide.
Four more charter schools are set to open at the start of the 2027-28 school year.
Charter schools are tuition-free public schools that are given autonomy and flexibility from some regulations in exchange for accountability for the goals they set. Searcy told Alabama Daily News that most of the charter school operators have asked for flexibility in either staffing or school design.
That flexibility can take different forms. A school might propose a longer school day or school year, Saturday classes, or additional time devoted to music, the arts or academics.
A charter school could also plan to hire teachers who have not yet obtained certification in Alabama, though those teachers, like other employees, are subject to background checks, Searcy said.
In exchange for that autonomy, however, charter operators must spell out exactly what they plan to do and how they will be held accountable for results. They are also subject to the same state and federal monitoring requirements as traditional public schools.
Everything a charter operator hopes and expects to do is laid out in the application.
The application process is complicated and detailed. A charter school operator must lay out plans for everything from which curriculum they plan to use to how they’ll raise the money to open to who their governing board is to how they’ll involve parents and families and how they plan to discipline students. Applications regularly top 100 pages or more.
The charter school contract dictates not only how many students it expects to enroll but also the specific need the school hopes to fill. That could be to educate underperforming populations of students, children with learning challenges, or students interested in a school with a particular academic or arts focus.
A contract is typically initially approved for a five-year period but then must be renewed by the school’s charter authorizer.
Every charter school must operate under an authorizer, which can either be a local school district or the state-level charter commission.
Currently, 17 traditional school districts are charter authorizers, meaning that any charter operator that wants to open in the geographic area of that district must approve the application in order for the charter to open.
Elmore and Montgomery County school districts are the only local school district authorizers that currently have a charter school operating within their district.
Macon County Schools will open D.C. Wolfe as a K-6 conversion charter school in August, the first in the county. The school’s website states it will provide “innovative learning opportunities that prepare students for careers in agriculture, aerospace and aviation, veterinary sciences, healthcare, manufacturing, and much more.”
There is also a state-level body, the Alabama Public Charter School Commission, which operates as an independent state agency. The Commission can authorize charter schools that are not located in school districts that have become authorizers, and it can also hear appeals from charter schools whose application was denied by the district-level authorizer.
The state commission has authorized 17 schools, with 14 currently operating, one to open in 2026 and two to open in 2027.
The table below shows the state’s charter schools, which body authorized them and what year they opened.
Charter school operators function in many ways like their own school systems. Each charter school operator is responsible for everything from student outcomes to teacher recruitment to other district-level functions.
They do not have a central office, so those responsibilities must be handled either directly by the school or through contracts.
Searcy has worked with Alabama’s charter schools for nearly a decade, and said she has appreciated the slow growth. She said the sector building slowly has allowed them to learn as they go and do so carefully.
Searcy is excited about the Commission winning a nearly $30 million 5-year federal Charter School Program grant, which she hopes will strengthen the state’s charter school sector even more.
She said they plan to offer 25 grants during the five-year period and already have eight applicants from the first round. A second round will be opened up soon, she said.
There are two types of charter schools: Startup and conversion. A startup charter school is exactly what it sounds like – it starts from scratch and must find a school building and recruit all teachers and families.
A conversion charter school is a public school that is converted to a charter school by the district’s school board. All but three of Alabama’s charter schools are startups.
There are similarities between charter schools and traditional magnet schools, with key differences. First, magnet schools are always under the local board’s authority. Magnets can require students to meet minimum academic standards or demonstrate aptitude for the magnet school’s area of focus.
Conversely, charter schools must enroll all children who are in the residential area they serve, even if the school has a particular focus. And charter schools have independent boards – even if the charter school is a conversion charter school under the authority of a traditional school district.
If there are more applicants than seats available, charter schools must use a lottery system for whatever open seats are available.
Updated 1:10 p.m. to correctly state that four charter schools are expected to open during the 2027-28 school year and to include the table of charter schools that was initially left out.