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State Board conditionally approves slate of nonpublic schools citing facility compliance with DES and ED 320
Summary
The board accepted the commissioner’s recommendation to renew attendance and program approvals for multiple nonpublic schools for one year (07/01/2025–06/30/2026) while those schools address facility compliance issues tied to ED 320 and Department of Environmental Services requirements.
The State Board of Education conditionally approved a slate of nonpublic school renewals for the period July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, while those schools address outstanding facility compliance matters tied to new facility rules (ED 320) and state Department of Environmental Services (DES) requirements.
Tim Carney, who presented the packet, said 15 nonpublic schools in the packet had met program or attendance requirements but had outstanding facility items falling under the Department of Environmental Services and the new ED 320 facility-approval rules. "At the facility level, we are permitted to approve based on meeting deadlines for things that schools are not currently compliant with," Carney said. Under ED 320 the bureau may issue conditional approvals with deadlines; the board’s option at the state level is either full five-year approval (available only when facility requirements are fully met) or a one-year conditional approval.
Board members approved the slate as conditional one-year approvals and the three schools seeking full attendance-and-program approval. Carney told the board the department will bring individual schools back for full state-board approval as they satisfy facility compliance rather than waiting until the next meeting cycle. The department said many of the facility issues are readily correctable and arise from the implementation of the 2024 DES and ED 320 requirements; the bureau is working with DES to resolve outstanding items.
The board recorded the approvals as slates (attendance-only and attendance-and-program) and included instructions for follow-up monitoring at the bureau level. The conditional approvals do not authorize student occupancy in a building until a full facility approval is issued by the bureau, and the department emphasized it will withhold occupancy approval where safety or environmental compliance issues remain.
