While enrollment in K-12 education across the state saw its lowest decline in decades, charter schools are seeing a small but significant increase in enrollment. Charter school proponents bet on this centralized, specialized form of education, and in Nevada, it’s paying off.
Open to the Public
Charters in Nevada are state-funded, public schools. “I think there’s this myth that we operate without boundaries, that we’re outside of any influence,” said Melissa Mackedon, executive director of the State Public Charter School Authority (SPCSA).
Charters respond to the same ultimate authority as traditional schools: the Nevada Department of Education (DOE). “Like traditional public schools, charter schools are tuition-free, must comply with applicable state and federal laws, and are accountable for student outcomes,” said Dr. Victor Wakefield, superintendent of the Nevada DOE. “Charter schools also implement Nevada Academic Content Standards and participate in statewide assessment and accountability systems.”
Who Rules?
While the Nevada DOE is at the top of the chain for all public schools, charters have another layer: “authorizers,” which approve the initial charter. “As a charter school authorizer, you have a lot of responsibility,” Mackedon said. “Authorizers can lose their ability to approve schools.”
No authorizer has lost authority in Nevada, but Mackedon said they all act carefully, as day-to-day review of boards and individual schools is handled by a charter’s authorizer. “We do site visits at all of our schools, a very specific ‘check under the hood,'” she said. “On top of general framework evaluation, we do focus groups with families, staff members, students, and the school’s board members.”
The Nevada DOE can approve or revoke authorization access and holds authorizers to similar review standards. “Once approved, local government authorizers are subject to periodic evaluation by the Department to assess their effectiveness and performance as charter school authorizers,” Wakefield said.
This process includes an annual performance report due on or before February 15. “The report should synthesize the academic, financial, and organizational performance metrics of each operating charter school,” he said. “The Department’s responsibility regarding these February reports is to prescribe the official reporting forms and collect the submissions from the respective authorizers.”
A Higher Standard
As the executive director of the Charter School Association of Nevada, Selena Torres-Fossett focuses on professional development and liaison work between the state and charter schools, particularly in oversight. She said this level of scrutiny is higher for charter schools. “As charter schools, we have the same and then additional compliance reporting requirements as other public schools,” she said.
All public schools start with the Nevada School Performance Framework (NSPF). A rating between one and five is released annually by the state, based on indicators such as academic achievement, growth, graduation rates, and career readiness.
But NSPF is only one standard; the authorizers can add additional frameworks to assess a school’s performance or any other measures they deem appropriate. Usually, other measures are finance and budget-focused. The difference, Fossett said, is that for charters, these expectations translate into real consequences.
“If a school is receiving one or two stars for several years in a row, we consider that underperforming, and that school can and will be shut down by its authorizer,” Fossett said. “Whereas, with traditional schools, obviously, that would not be something we’d generally see.” This standard comes from a “strong push” for accountability—an expectation of all public schools, Wakefield explained. “There’s a lot more pressure for charter schools to perform well,” Fossett added.
Approved!
It’s not just about maintaining; opening a charter is the real battle. “Less than half are approved,” Mackedon said. “It’s a rigorous process.”
Mackedon opened and ran her own charter school in 2011 and now has seen the process from both sides. She said form submissions must make clear points about the school’s purpose, its relevance to the community, and its popularity. “We ask how the zip code the school would open in would be served from the school, and if it solicited feedback from students and families,” she said.
“They can’t hire [just] anyone to teach a first grader to read or a high school chemistry class—all teachers have to be licensed for all core areas under NRS 391, which are the same licensure requirements for all public schools,” Mackedon added.
Employees also receive Public Employees’ Retirement System of Nevada (PERS) and can transfer between districts in the state, maintaining their eligibility. “Charter schools set their own salary schedule, and sometimes they are competency-based,” Mackedon said. “Regardless, they still attract teachers because they have smaller class sizes or offer specific opportunities.”
Authorizers get annual reports of all hires. “We can see who has what position, if they’re licensed, what they’re being paid,” she said. “Then, we’re able to intervene if needed.”
Educational Autonomy
While pay may be the differentiator for teaching and administrative roles, a charter’s major selling point to families is choice. “We have more room to follow niche models,” Fossett said.
There’s a wide variety of programming in Nevada’s charters: special education, English as a second language, law enforcement, robotics, STEM, virtual schools, and more are offered across the state.
“Charter schools get to choose their curriculum—there’s a lot of autonomy,” Mackedon said. “Of course, this all has to be compliant with state and federal laws. It can’t be discriminatory, but they do have room to do some things public schools can’t.”
This extends to policymaking. Phones were banned in a number of charter schools years ago, for example: students continue to be required to lock their devices up, an effort that’s failed many times in public schools across the country. “Some parents want that, and you can get that at a charter,” Mackedon said.
What’s more, unlike career and technical, magnet, or other schools with specialty programming for K-12 students in the states, charter schools are not allowed to turn students away based on GPA. “We don’t limit admission that way,” Fossett said. “What I think is great about charter schools is that they provide high-quality education to all students, regardless of where they come from, their zip code, grades, or discipline record.”
That doesn’t mean enrollment isn’t competitive—many schools have months or years-long waitlists. Most of the larger charters are in southern Nevada: Mater Academy of Nevada, Pinecrest Academy, and Somerset Academy of Nevada have multiple campuses. Other campuses can operate with 100 students. Some of these charters offer open enrollment, while for others, openings are rare.
“Charters are more flexible, but they still have an enrollment cap set out by their authorizer,” Fossett said. “Schools can go to their authorizer and ask for an increase in enrollment, but depending on a school’s size and staffing, they may not be able to accept more students.”
Where’s the Money?
Budgets play a big role in student support. “In most states, each charter school is its own Local Education Agency (LEA), but in Nevada, the authorizer is the LEA for all schools it oversees,” Mackedon said. As the second-largest LEA, SPCSA manages large federal grants—special education, Title I and II, transportation, learning accommodations, and more.
“Charters get per-pupil funding from the DOE, just like traditional public schools,” Mackedon said. “If Student A in Clark County is getting $9,500, Student B will get the same amount at a charter school.”
But funding isn’t totally equitable across public schools. “Auxiliary funding for charters is different—food service and transportation,” she said. “But the most significant discrepancy is in local dollars.”
Traditional public schools can access public funds from tax dollars or city bonds, which pay for facilities and other projects. “Charter schools don’t get that,” Mackedon said. “Capital expenses must be covered by other revenue sources, which means right off the top, about 15 percent of the per-pupil dollars go toward the leases.”
Philanthropic efforts are especially important for charters. “The Las Vegas Sands Corporation has been very generous with the Young Women’s Leadership Academy, and the building industry in southern Nevada has funded the Southern Nevada Trades High School, for example,” she said.
Communication Lines
Where charters really shine, Fossett said, is their ability to communicate—both needs and successes—through leadership. When a charter school launches, so does a “founding board,” which functions like traditional school boards. It must be approved through the authorizer, too.
“I explain it as a small and big business,” she said. “With a small business, if you have an issue, you can go right to the top. Charter schools are like that—the principal is the main leader of the campus, and above the principal is the board. It’s pretty easy to find all the information and communicate.”
The chain of command is different in traditional public schools, she said: more like that of a large company. “The principal might have some say, some say, but then there’s also say from the district offices, and I think that makes things easier to get lost in translation,” she said.
Ultimately, charter schools want families to know that it’s about choice. “Charter schools support families having the ability to choose what school their child goes to, and empower them to make the decision that’s best for their student,” Fossett said. “We know that when families are empowered with that control, they’re happier with the education that the student receives.”
How Nevada Stacks Up
The community seems to have bought into the idea: almost 100 charter schools currently operate in Nevada, and more students enroll every year. “The growth of students in charter schools has been slow and steady,” Mackedon said. “It’s between two and three percent every year.” Charter schools are a significant part of the state’s public school structure: in the 2025-26 school year, over 70,000 of the state’s K-12 students attended charter schools—nearly 15 percent of the total student body.
While other factors are at play, the authorization rules have influenced how easily charter schools can be opened (or closed) in Nevada. Effective beginning in 2023, Assembly Bill 400 significantly broadened the definition of “authorizer” with the intent to help ease growing pains.
“Nevada’s charter school system includes multiple authorizers, including the SPCSA, certain school districts, the Nevada System of Higher Education, and approved cities and counties,” Wakefield said. This legal change hasn’t resulted in practical differences. “The largest authorizer in the state is still the SPCSA,” Fossett said.
That’s not for lack of trying. “We allow school districts in Nevada to authorize charter schools, but they aren’t really doing it,” Mackedon said. “Clark County and Washoe County School District did 20 years ago, but not now.”
Washoe is moving the most with seven authorized schools, and the city of Henderson plans to open its first this year. Clark, however, has officially deferred to the SPCSA, while other municipalities continue to pass on sign-off responsibility.
Clark County handed over the reins for some of the growth in the charter student body, Mackedon said, but not all. Many families really do prefer charter and are bringing more students with them. “We have more students than the Washoe County School District,” Mackedon said.
However, compared to surrounding states, this number is low. Arizona, for example, has 20 percent of students enrolled in state charters. “Arizona literally has hundreds and hundreds of charter schools,” Mackedon said. “That’s compared to our 90.”
It comes back to the number of active authorizers, she said. “Other states have 100 [school] districts, and they’re authorizing a charter school or two each,” she said. “Imagine if Reno, Sparks, Lyon County, all these entities became active and started authorizing too, I think it would be the explosion of charter schools that happened in these other places.”
In the next legislative cycle, Mackedon said their focus will be streamlining these efforts. “We have some cleanup to do with the laws around who can authorize,” she said. “Once a law passes and you work under it, you realize where the flaws are.” SPCSA has 120 days to review applications, whereas municipalities are given 60 days, for example. “Small things like this, once changed, will make a big difference,” she said.
