Independent (2r or 2x) Charter Schools

Independent charter schools ("ICS"), sometimes referred to as 2r or 2x charter schools, are charter schools that are not authorized by a public school district. Each of the following have authority to authorize a charter school in Wisconsin:

The common council of the city of Milwaukee
The chancellor of any institution in the University of Wisconsin System
Each technical college district board
Waukesha County Executive
College of Menominee Nation
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University
UW-System Office of Educational Opportunity 

Contact information for active independent charter school authorizers can be found in the Wisconsin Charter School Yearbook available here. Scroll down to "Charter Schools Yearbook" and select the most recent year. You will be directed to the corresponding Wisconsin Resource Center for Charter Schools Yearbook webpage and prompted to "Launch the Yearbook." Once you have launched the yearbook, sort by Authorizer (available at the top of the list next to Schools A-Z and CESA) . You will be able to view every authorizer - both District and independent - alphabetically. Please note only the City of Milwaukee, the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Parkside, the UW System OEO, and the Waukesha County Executive are currently authorizing independent charter schools.

What do we mean when we say "2r & 2x" and "Legacy & New" Independent Charter Schools?
The terms "2r" or "2x" refer to the section of the charter school law within s. 118.40 that grants these entities authority to authorize charter schools. Independent charter schools may also be referred to as legacy or new independent charter schools. Legacy schools are schools chartered by authorizers who had the authority prior to 2015 Act 55 (UW-Milwaukee, the City of Milwaukee, UW-Parkside, and the Milwaukee Area Technical College), and new independent charter schools are those chartered by an authorizer who received authority to authorize in or after 2015 Act 55 (Waukesha County Executive, College of Menominee Nation, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University, Office of Educational Opportunity, any UW Chancellor (other than UW-Milwaukee and UW-Parkside), and any technical college district board (except MATC).

Under Wis. Stat. § 118.40(4)(ag), no more than a minority of the governing board's members may be employees of the charter school or employees or officers of the school district in which the charter school is located”. Therefore, no more than a minority of the governing board could be filled by employees or officers of the school district they are physically located in.