The charter application review process is the key gateway to new schools, as well as the best way to avoid authorizing a low-quality or failing charter school that ultimately harms students and the larger charter sector. Capacity interviews are one of the most important parts of the application review process. Unfortunately, some authorizers still don’t conduct capacity interviews as part of their application review. That’s scary. 

Fifteen years ago, authorizers were developing capacity interviews as a central step in the application process. In 2026, not exploring the applicant’s capacity and knowledge through an in-person interview is a dereliction of an authorizer’s duty. Assuming that what an applicant group writes on paper is a fair representation of their knowledge, skills, and experience is an act of extreme faith.

Capacity interviews come in many levels of detail, but conducting an acceptable interview process and incorporating lessons into the application review is very doable, even for the smallest or least experienced authorizer.

When a Strong Written Application
Might Not Indicate Future Success

Authorizers have always feared that weak applicants could submit a perfect paper application, even if they had little knowledge or skills to back it up. The advent of AI has given authorizers even more concern that they will start receiving “perfect charter applications” from groups that have little understanding of what they proposed — and zero chance of turning their paper into a good school.

Despite these fears, anecdotally, authorizers across the country report that they are receiving more truly weak applications than ever before. At one level, that is surprising given how many successful applications founding groups can “borrow” from.

Authorizers used to be concerned that overly-detailed application rubrics included so much information about what the authorizer was looking for that applicants could just parrot back rubric language to the authorizer. Most NN4DA model applications and rubrics have wrestled with this issue. Current model materials are expansive in scope, without providing too much depth. This avoids turning a charter application into a “paint by numbers exercise.”

For those who can’t figure out what to cut and paste themselves, consultants have always helped some founding groups craft proposals. While most authorizers can tell when a consultant did the writing, the key question remains whether the founding group owns and understands what they submitted. That is the role of the capacity interview—making sure the founding group has in-depth knowledge of the application, and that the knowledge and expertise is distributed among the appropriate people, rather than residing all in one person’s head.

Outside the rubrics and consultants, there is plenty of material for applicants to borrow from. While a precise count of all charter applications is not available, we have about 8,000 operating charter schools today. Nearly 4,000 more charters opened and then closed. That means about 12,000 charter schools may have opened at one time or another in the last 34 years. If authorizers approve about half of all applicants, we can estimate that authorizers in this country have read about 24,000 charter applications to date. With 200 to 500 pages per applicant, today’s charter applicants have between 4.8 and 12 million pages of previous charter applications to draw from. Many of these applications are part of the public record.

That scale is difficult to comprehend, unless you are an AI super computer. The largest AI models “scrub” the entire internet for material to train with, including public documents posted on district websites or other public sections of the web.

We can debate whether AI can write a good charter application today, or at least a few key parts. And it is interesting to consider how applicants could use AI to improve their own understanding of what it takes to open a successful school and how technology can deepen their own thinking – ultimately helping them open and run a better school. We might disagree about these things now, but we should all assume AI will play an increasingly important role in the near future.

As AI continues to improve, it is probably time for all authorizers to revisit their application review processes and materials and to double-down on the importance of capacity interviews. The NN4DA and our state partners look forward to working on that over the next few years.

Core Areas to Align with and Assess

The capacity interview process should align with the state’s charter statutes and the authorizer’s application and evaluation criteria to be transparent, objective, and defensible in cases of appeal. In most states and authorizing contexts, this includes the educational program, governance, operations, and finance. Another important area to probe is the school’s capacity to serve all students, including students with disabilities and English learners. In all of these areas, the interview should assess operating assumptions, staffing structures and roles, timelines and scheduling, budget assumptions, and program selection or development. Assessing these areas will help to ensure the charter plan is comprehensive, operationally viable, and cohesive.

When denying a charter application, findings from a capacity interview help more if they align with the criteria an authorizer may use to justify a denial under state law. There are many more forms of capacity to explore when authorizers plan to approve an applicant, while still trying to help them open more successfully.

Support and Resources

NN4DA partners have created various tools and materials to help authorizers conduct strong capacity interviews. State partners are also available to provide direct technical assistance to authorizers doing their first capacity interview, or those hoping to “up their game.” A partial list of helpful capacity interview resources is included below, and all NN4DA partners stand ready to help local districts.

Alex Medler & Robin Chait

Capacity Interview Resources

CACSA

The Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers (CASCA) created a suite of materials for Capacity Interviews. These materials focus on how to train and prepare for capacity interviews, how to communicate to an applicant about the process, and include hands-on tools that can be used during interviews. Most of these materials were created in 2019 and 2020, but they remain appropriate today, especially for an authorizer that is new to conducting capacity interviews.

1. CACSA Introductory Deck on Capacity Interviews: This introductory presentation explains capacity interviews for an introductory audience, from William Haft for CACSA. This deck can be used for a day-long, or half-day training for authorizers to learn how to design and conduct capacity interviews.
2. CACSA Charter Application Review Interview Guidance: This is a two-page background document that an authorizer could share with a charter application group to explain the interview process, its purpose, and help them prepare for it.
3. CACSA Charter Interview Questions: This document provides a few introductory/generic questions for a first interview, or the start of a longer interview. It includes a form for use with more questions that are specific to the application. The document helps frame and structure the interview and provides less detail on the topics an interview might cover based on what the application raises.
4. Application Review Team Notes Round 1: This document is a note-taking tool for interviews during a capacity interview. It follows main topic areas and is intended to help those conducting the interview document what they learn.
5. Application Review Team Round 2 Agenda: This document includes an agenda and background information for a follow-up interview, in which the details of conditions or findings from the application review are clarified for consideration by the authorizer.

FACSA

The Florida Association of Charter School Authorizers (FACSA) has shared a presentation deck from one of their experienced members (Broward County Public Schools) and a guide for exploring issues related to students with disabilities. This focused guide may also be useful for exploring additional student populations in the interview process.

1. FACSA created a capacity interview guide designed to explore the applicant’s capacity related to serving students with disabilities. While based on Florida charter and special education law, this tool can help authorizers in any state learn more about a charter applicant’s knowledge, expertise, and degree of preparation for serving students with disabilities.
2. FACSA member, Broward County Public Schools, presentation deck for training district authorizers in the purpose and mechanics of a capacity interview. This deck is designed for a brief/one-hour workshop on the topic and is an introductory resource helpful to new authorizers, new staff, and districts that have not received an application for a while.

NACSA

NACSA is promoting the concept of application reviews that place greater emphasis on the people involved in charter applications, rather than on the “paper” application. The NACSA website provides an overview, as well as a list of first steps. These resources build on a previous document that discussed how authorizers can evaluate The Capacities of Charter School Founding Teams. A supporting document provides a Sample Statement of Assurances.

This approach includes an expanded list of 9 capacities that a charter founding group should, ideally, manifest. This list is extensive and includes many capacities that a founding group would benefit from including. The ability of a new authorizer to fully explore these capacities may be limited by their own capacity, time, and expertise. Also, state charter law may not support an authorizer’s decision to deny or impose contractual obligations on a charter founding group based on some of these issues. These caveats aside, the NACSA approach raises important capacities related to charter applicant ability to open and operate a high-quality charter school that leverages local assets and that truly meets the needs of the local community.