(a) Beginning with the 2018-2019 school year, if the local board of education is the authorizer of a charter school, then the local board shall receive an annual authorizer fee that is a percentage of the charter school's per student state and local funding as allocated under § 49-13-112. The annual authorizer fee shall be the lesser of three percent (3%) of the annual per student state and local allocations or thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000) per school.
(b) The LEA shall use the annual authorizer fee exclusively for fulfilling authorizing obligations in accordance with this chapter.
(c) If, for any school year, the total amount of authorizer fees collected by the LEA exceeds the amount used by the LEA to perform its authorizing obligations and responsibilities, the LEA shall distribute the amount remaining to its authorized public charter schools. The department shall develop a process to refund the unused fees to authorized public charter schools in the school year immediately following the school year in which the unused fees were collected by the LEA.
(d) [Deleted by 2025 amendment.]
(e) If the commission authorizes a public charter school under this chapter, then the commission must receive an annual authorizer fee of up to three percent (3%) of the public charter school's per pupil state and local funding as allocated under § 49-13-112(a) or four hundred sixty-three thousand dollars ($463,000), whichever is less. By May 1 of each year, the commission or the commission's designee shall set the percentage of a public charter school's per student state and local funding that the commission shall receive as the annual authorizer fee for the next school year. Notwithstanding subsection (b), the commission may use the commission's annual authorizer fee to fulfill obligations consistent with the authority of the commission as set forth in this chapter.
(f) By December 1 of each year, each LEA that collects an annual authorizer fee shall report the total amount of authorizer fees collected in the previous school year and the authorizing obligations fulfilled using the fee to the state board of education. The state board shall create a standard template for purposes of the report and shall post the information received from each LEA on its website by December 11 of each year.