OMA Advisory Opinion (#OOG-2025-0003) – DC Public Charter School Board

On July 25, 2025, Director Allen issued an Advisory Opinion #OOG-2025-0003, in response to a complaint which alleged that forty-seven Boards of Trustees for District of Columbia Public Charter Schools (“Boards of Trustees”) are not in compliance with the Open Meeting Act (“OMA”), citing one or more acts of non-compliance by each of the forty-seven Boards of Trustees identified in the Collective Complaint. The Complainant expressed concerns that the information pertaining to the forty-seven Boards of Trustees meetings “is not universally easy to access,” and it “may help if the charter board now makes a request for a board meeting template to be followed for all charters’ websites.” This Advisory Opinion only addresses the preceding concerns about universal easy access to Public Charter School Boards of Trustees’ meeting information and a board meeting template to be used by all District of Columbia Public Charter Schools (“DCPCS”) on their websites. Each complaint specific to a Public Charter School Board will be addressed under a separate (sub-)complaint number.

The Director found that the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board did not violate the Open Meetings Act because universal, easy access to Public Charter School Boards of Trustees’ meeting information and a board meeting template to be used by DCPCS on their websites do not implicate the OMA and open meetings regulations. Director Allen acknowledges that the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board has demonstrated by virtue of the Public Information Policy that steps have been taken to improve access to the Boards of Trustees of DC Public Charter Schools’ information, which includes meetings. Further, Director Allen takes notice in the advisory opinion that the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board has developed a guideline for universal publishing format to coincide with the full implementation of the Public Information Policy in July 2025.