Purpose of the Restart Authorization Process Guide
This process guide is designed to increase the success and sustainability of restart interventions. This guide provides practical, step-by-step guidance about what authorizers, school operators, and support organizations should consider when designing or refining a process for implementing restart. In addition, this guide can help decision-makers evaluate their infrastructure before deciding whether to pursue a restart.
This website includes a complementary Restart Authorizer Resource database, with searchable tools and resources collected from authorizers and support organizations. These resources offer practical examples of the materials that support each step of the restart process.
Target Audience
While the primary audience for this guide is authorizers, many groups play a significant role in restarts and should understand the optimal processes and policies to make restarts successful. For this guide, “authorizers” are defined broadly to include organizations at the state and local level who have the authority to open, close and oversee district-run or charter schools. Authorizers may be school districts, independent entities, universities, or state agencies. School operators, community organizations, funders, and policymakers will all benefit from understanding restarts as an important turnaround intervention for both low-performing district and charter schools.
Source of Process Guide Recommendations
The recommendations included in the process guide are largely based on the experiences of authorizers, school operators, education support organizations, and community leaders that have participated in restart initiatives in communities throughout the country, including: Camden, NJ; Denver, CO; Massachusetts; Memphis, TN; New Orleans and Baton Rouge, LA; New York, Philadelphia, PA; and Washington D.C. The authors of this process guide relied on individuals from each of these communities to provide interviews, share resources, and review draft versions of the process guide and restart resource descriptions.