NOLA Public Schools has led a dramatic increase in the number of students meeting academic proficiency standards, and the performance gap between students in Orleans Parish and Louisiana as a whole dramatically decreased between 2005-2019. The impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic hit urban districts particularly hard, and New Orleans was no exception. Despite this, the district has had amongst the highest levels of improvement in the state of Louisiana since the pandemic.
Every student in New Orleans deserves equal access to high quality schools where their interests will come first, where they and their families will have choice, and where educators will have the tools and support they need to be successful. Please view the Profile At-a-Glance for Charter Applicants for more information on the district.
The NOLA Public Schools Request For Applications begins September 8, 2025 and a detailed timeline is provided below. If you are interested in applying after the deadline for applications has passed, you may use the materials and information from previous charter cycles as a reference, however, please note that the application may be updated annually, and thus there may be changes to the upcoming cycle's application in comparison with the previous year's application.
District Authorizing Priorities
The Orleans Parish School Board regularly adopts a set of district authorizing priorities to guide its charter authorization process. These priorities outline what the district seeks in operators to expand high-quality options for families. Setting clear District Authorizing Priorities informs recruitment strategies for new operators and expansion of existing operators; provides transparency in the charter application process of the district’s objectives; and informs the Superintendent’s decision to approve new schools.
Please note the following section from the District Authorizing Priorities (entire document is linked below):
NOLA Public Schools is committed to the optimization of the district. This means that by making strategic portfolio decisions families have high-quality options, schools have the funding they need for improved programming and teacher salaries, and buildings are of the highest quality and are being fully utilized. As such, the district is seeking to have a strong bench of operators available to transform a school, should the need arise. While the district does not anticipate newly approved charter applicants opening new schools in the near future, applicants for new schools are welcome to apply.
District Authorizing Priorities
Fall 2025 RFA Cycle
In compliance with R.S. 17:3982, the Orleans Parish School Board is making public through our website and in printed form upon request, the guidelines for submitting a charter proposal, all forms required for submission of a charter proposal, the timelines established for accepting and reviewing charter proposals, the process that will be used to review charter proposals submitted to the board, and the name and contact information for a primary point of contact for charter proposals. NOLA-PS New Operator Standards, 2025 NOLA Public Schools Profile-at-a-Glance, 2024 Louisiana Department of Education's Charter Applicant Toolbox
Any organization or individual may become eligible to submit an application by meeting specific eligibility requirements as outlined in the Eligibility Determination document and submitting a Letter of Intent. In order to be eligible to submit a full application in the NOLA Public Schools' Fall 2025 Charter Request for Applications process the Eligibility Determination and Letter of Intent are due to charterapp@nolapublicschools.com by September 22, 2025 at 12PM CST.
Application materials are below. If you have any questions please contact Anne-Lise McCarver at amccarver@nolapublicschools.com.
Information sessions for interested applicants will be held online.
The Application
The documents linked below are needed to complete a charter application. They are attached in Word to make it easier for applicants to copy the questions into their own documents, but applicants are required to submit their documents via PDF, except for the Overview Template.
The Eligibility Documentation, which includes the directions for what to include in the Letter of Intent, is due by September 22, 2025 by 12:00PM Central Time.
The full application is due by October 20, 2025 by 12:00PM Central Time. Those materials are below:
After submitting an application:
After the submission of a Type 1 or Type 3 charter school application, each applicant shall provide notice to the LDoE. Submission to LDoE should be completed using this Jotform link: https://ldoeforms.jotform.com/242324710353144
Additional Resources:
NOLA-PS Experienced Operator Standards, 2025
LDoE's New Operator Self-Assessment Completeness Check Template
LDoE's Experienced Operator Self-Assessment Completeness Check Template
Start a Charter School
The Fall 2025 cycle opens September 8 with the first component of the application (Letter of Intent and Eligibility Determination) due on September 22, 2025. Online information sessions for interested parties will be held on September 11 and 16. Additional information can be found on this page.
District Primary Contact
For any questions regarding opening a charter school in New Orleans, and/or the application process, please contact Anne-Lise McCarver, Executive Director of Portfolio Innovation, at amccarver@nolapublicschools.com or 504-359-9584.
