At-Will Employment in Charter Schools

Colorado is an at-will employment state. This means that all charter school staff members can be employed at-will. Charter schools who employ at-will can terminate or be terminated without cause.

Some schools have unwittingly invalidated their at-will employment by guaranteeing a term in the at-will agreement, entering into a remediation plan, or not appropriately documenting their at-will status in employee handbooks or contracts. No charter school should use an employee handbook without first consulting with an attorney.

Public charter school employees are employees of the charter school only and not the authorizer (the school district or the Charter School Institute). This means a charter school employee does not have due process or tenure rights guaranteed by the teacher union contract with the district. Charter schools model the business community where people are employed to perform a particular job and if they don't perform, they don't continue receiving a paycheck.

A commonly held belief amongst school reformers is that if all public education used a system where people perform their job well or else they're replaced by someone who can do the job well. In the world of public education, this is a novel concept!