A new school can be opened in many ways. It can be a charter, independent or public school. It can also be a Montessori or bilingual school. It is important to find a facility that will meet the licensing requirements. It may need renovations, but it is much cheaper to renovate a facility than to build from the ground up. It is also important to determine what grades your school will serve. Then you can select a name and create a brand.
It is helpful to find members of the community who have experience in business, law and management. These people will have the skills to help you develop your school business and provide guidance to the board of directors. These people will be able to help you locate funding sources. They will also know the people who can help you with any problems you may encounter as you open your school.
After the initial pause on in-person learning, districts across the country have been developing strategies to safely reopen their sites and keep them open as local community infection rates rise and fall. This brief describes some of the approaches that have been tested and refined in districts like Tulsa, which has kept its schools open despite rising community infection rates by maintaining a rigorous program of multilayered mitigation strategies, including testing and universal masking. This publication is part of the Learning Policy Institute’s “Supporting School Reopening with a Focus on Testing and Tracing” research project, which is supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Heising-Simons Foundation.