About Ohio Charter Schools

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Key Facts About Ohio Charter Schools

The first public charter schools opened in Ohio more than 18 years ago and there has been a continual expansion and development of charter options in the state offering choices for families seeking educational choice for their children.

Flexibility, in exchange for higher accountability, provides charter school administrators and teachers many paths to design curriculum and teaching models unique to their programs. Autonomy is key to permitting charter schools to operate in a structure and environment that is nimble and adaptable to entrepreneurial approaches to education.          

The key reasons parents give about choosing a charter school for their child include: higher levels of safety, quality, having closer ties to their child’s school, special needs of a student, interest in a focus area such as STEM and interest in a smaller, more personalized learning environment. Since 1998, when 15 charter schools operated in Ohio, growth has steadily increased. According to the most recent data from ODE, there were 395 charter schools in the state in 2014.  

Facts About Ohio Charter Schools

chart showing statistics of Ohio Charter Schools

*Most recent data from the Ohio Department of Education