Charter schools may bypass requirements and rules that govern traditional public schools. Through a model called Restart, some traditional North Carolina schools receive similar flexibilities. More than 100 schools have applied for and received restart status since 2016.
The restart program gives districts more autonomy, but there are questions about which schools are using it and how it functions. Is this new flexibility a way for some public schools to address perennial low performance? Could the proliferation of restart schools signal a shift towards charter-like flexibility for non-restart schools?
Alex Granados, senior reporter for EdNC, and Kelly Hinchcliffe, education reporter at WRAL, teamed up for the state’s first comprehensive look at the restart program. Check back next week for a an in-depth examination of the state’s restart schools.
The restart series is a collaborative project funded by the Center for Cooperative Media.
