Can new century charter schools sue and be sued?
As discussed by the Attorney General in its letter to the Bureau (Appendix D of this report), there is no provision in the charter school law that directly addresses how charter schools and local school boards are expected to deal with lawsuits, for example, whether charter schools may use state funds to initiate or defend against a lawsuit, or whether the Legislature intended that charter schools be able to sue the State. If charter schools are to be treated on the same basis as non-charter public schools, they should not be able to initiate litigation against the State, since individual non-charter public schools have never been able to sue the Superintendent or Board of Education. These policy issues must be resolved by the Legislature.
