Compliance Center

Yes. All charter school teachers in California, including core, elective, and CTE teachers, are required to hold a CTC certificate, permit, or other document equivalent for the certificated assignment. However, any elective teacher who has been in the same assignment at the same school consistently since the 2019-20 school year has until July 1, 2025 to earn the appropriate credential.

Yes. Any teacher providing instruction to English learners in a California school, including charter schools, must have an EL authorization in addition to their content credential. For more information regarding EL authorizations, please visit this resource page.

All charter schools, including OUSD-authorized charter schools, are required to annually participate in the California Statewide Assignment Accountability System (CalSAAS). OCS acts as the "Monitoring Authority" for all OUSD-authorized charter schools in this process. Additionally, because the CalSAAS system is currently operating on a one year delay (for example, the 2022-23 teacher credentialing data was evaluated in the fall of the 2023-24 school year), OCS also collects teacher credentialing and vacancy information at the start of each school year through Epicenter (see the template under the Document Collection section of this page).

There are a variety of steps that charter schools can take to avoid having teacher misassignments. First and foremost, schools should ensure that teachers have the appropriate credential for the content and learners in their assignment. If you're not sure what credential is required for an assignment, check out the CTC's credentialing tables for CALPADS Courses, English Learner Services, and Special Education Disability Categories. If you have identified a misassignment, or have a teaching candidate who does not yet have the appropriate credential, check out the CTC's resource on Misassignment Correction Options which gives more information regarding emergency credentialing options, local assignment options, and more.

Finally, to avoid unnecessary misassignments, be sure that your charter school is submitting accurate information into the applicable CALPADS reports each Census Day.

We recommend to start by watching the CalSAAS Training Module (approximately 60 minutes) which will give more information regarding the purpose, timeline, determination types, and roles during the CalSAAS cycle. After this first step, review the resources found on the CTC's CalSAAS Information page, the modules in the CTC's Assignment School, and other resources included in the OCS "Helpful Resources" linked at the top of this section. Finally, all OUSD-authorized charter schools will be supported throughout the CalSAAS process by OCS staff, including the annual "CalSAAS Kickoff Training" which occurs before the start of monitoring.

Education Code (EC) and Title 5 Regulations (T5) provide local educational agencies (LEAs) with educator assignment options that can be used when an LEA is unable to assign a certificated employee with the appropriate credential. These options, known as Local Assignment Options (LAOs), allow flexibility at the local level and are used solely at the discretion of the LEA. For more information regarding LAOs, visit the CTC's Local Assignment Options web page.