Share your knowledge and network with California’s charter school leadership.
The Call for Proposals (CFP) is open now! Submit your proposal by May 31 and make an impact on the California charter schools sector!
Why Present?
Why Present?
Presenting at the CSDC Conference is a great way to build capacity in the California charter school sector and to have a huge impact on the lives of students, faculty, and communities across the state.
Past presenters have said that the CSDC Conference is an especially great event for:
- Networking and connecting with school leaders from across California
- Imparting timely, actionable information to the leaders who can activate them at their school sites
- Building reputations as trusted thought-leaders in the sector
- Saving on registration via a special discounted rate* made available exclusively to presenters at this year’s conference
Who Presents?
CSDC seeks strong, experienced leaders within the charter sector who have insightful, timely, and critical content to share. The most valuable proposals:
- Address content or topics listed in the CFP (see strands and topics)
- Are presented by reputable charter school/sector leaders
- Share specific, proven best practices
- Provide actionable resources
- Describe specific challenges and how the school/charter organization/leader overcame them
- Offer real-world applications to operationalize valuable content
- Engage attendees with interactive components, workbooks, visuals, multiple presenters, and/or Q&A
What Presenters Say
Presentation Formats
- Breakout Sessions: 75-minute long sessions that cover topics critical to charter school operations; these make up most of the offered content scheduled throughout the conference.
- Learning Labs: 30-minute sessions hosted in our exhibit hall, designed to be full of energy, hands-on engagement, and provide opportunities for attendees to interact with their colleagues during exhibit hall hours on a niche topic.
Review the conference schedule.
Strands and Accepted Topics
Accountability & Renewal
- LCAP: best practices
- LCAP: how we solved a challenge
- Oversight: streamlined and sound
- Renewal and oversight data: getting on the same page with the authorizer
- Renewal data: making a case when first-glance data looks tough
- Renewal petition drafting: legal updates
- Renewal: building support
- Other
Educational Approaches
- Brain-based learning
- Build a strong Transitional Kindergarten program
- Effective flex-/nonclassroom-based approaches
- Effective Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)
- Effective STEM education
- Innovative approaches (e.g., project-based learning)
- Instructional leadership & achieving mindset shift
- Leveraging technology
- Parents as partners in learning
- Promoting growth in core content areas
- Promoting growth in social emotional learning (explicit sequential instruction)
- Teaching values & handling controversy in the classroom
- Strong Career Technical Education programs
- Supporting the success of English Learners
- Supporting the success of students with disabilities
- Other
Student Support Systems
- Changing adult mindsets
- Developing and launching successful Community Schools
- Improving school attendance: what works
- Making student voice matter
- Promoting college readiness
- Restorative justice and positive behavior support
- School climate and student connectedness
- Student mental health needs, including crisis supports
- Understanding neurodiversity
- Other
School Leadership & Governance
- Addressing teacher and administrator burnout and supporting sustainable leadership
- Aligning school mission, vision, and values with daily practices and decision-making
- Board and staff roles and boundaries in charter school governance
- Board recruitment, board diversity, and skills-based board development
- Building and maintaining effective relationships with charter school authorizers
- Charter school board governance practices and policies
- Charter school financial oversight, annual audits, and transparency
- Communication strategies for school leaders, including navigating difficult conversations with families and stakeholders
- Equity-focused leadership, including topics related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and the use of equity audits
- Labor relations and unions in charter schools
- Leadership development, team building, and succession planning for charter schools
- Legal responsibilities of charter school boards and leaders, including current policy and legal updates
- Recruiting, managing, and engaging volunteers and community partners
- Special education compliance and governance responsibilities
- Strategic planning and long-term organizational planning for charter schools
- Other
Education Policy & Advocacy
- Advocating for traffic safety near your school sites
- AI policy and regulation in education
- Attendance and chronic absenteeism policy
- Authorizer relations
- Board member roles in advocacy
- Building and leveraging community partnerships
- Building and running effective advocacy campaigns
- Building relationships with elected officials
- Charter oversight and accountability trends
- Charter-specific policy landscape and trends
- Civic engagement for educators and youth
- Civic engagement through non-partisan voter education, voter registration, and get-out-the-vote
- Civic learning in action
- Coalition building with other charter organizations
- District/charter relationships and local policy
- Effective advocacy systems and programs
- Equitable inclusion in school facility bonds and parcel taxes
- Facilities access and equity
- Federal issues & advocacy
- Federal budget and education funding priorities
- Federal regulatory trends affecting charter schools
- Local advocacy and collective action
- Local budget and funding priorities
- Local elected officials and school board dynamics
- Media and communications as an advocacy tool
- Mobilizing parents as advocates
- School funding equity advocacy
- Social media as an advocacy tool
- Special education funding advocacy
- State legislative & regulatory advocacy
- Student voice in policy advocacy
- Understanding the state budget process and its impact on schools
- Using data and storytelling to make your case
- Other
School Operations
- Administering a community schools program
- Asset management
- Attendance recovery systems and strategies
- Before and after school program operations
- Bell schedules and master scheduling
- Board meeting and public records management
- Bond financing for charter school facilities
- Budget development and monitoring
- Cash flow management
- Categorical funding
- Closing or merging a school
- Co-locating schools
- Compensation and benefits strategy
- CTIG grant management and implementation
- Cyber security
- CYBHI implementation
- District/charter leases
- Early College program administration
- Effectively navigating Prop 39
- Emergency preparedness and continuity planning
- Employee performance management
- Facilities fundamentals
- Facilities master planning
- Federal funding management
- Federal Title I program administration
- Field trips and activity management
- Financial transparency and reporting
- Financing
- Food and nutrition program management
- Fundraising
- How to have a successful audit
- How to select and work with a back-office provider
- Human Resources fundamentals
- Immigration: risk and compliance considerations
- Independent study compliance
- Insurance coverage in a crisis
- Launching and managing CTE pathways
- Leveraging AI in school operations
- Liability trends and how to avoid them
- Managing a multi-site operation
- Managing Prop 28 Funding
- Opening a new school
- Operating an ELOP program
- Outsourcing vs. insourcing school functions
- Purchasing and procurement strategies
- Recruitment, enrollment, and retention strategies
- Reserve fund strategies
- Risk management
- SB 740 facilities strategies
- School operations self-audits
- School safety plans
- Special education without breaking the bank
- Staff retention and culture
- Student admissions, lottery, and enrollment laws
- Supporting immigrant families: operational considerations
- Transportation logistics and solutions
- Vendor and contract management
- Volunteer program management
- When and how to invest
- Working effectively with your authorizer
- Other
Proposal Criteria, Review Process, and Resources
CSDC will only accept completed proposals submitted via the online portal, linked below. Proposals submitted any other way will not be accepted.
- Proposals must be received by deadline (see below)
- Limit of three (3) proposal submissions per individual or five (5) per organization unless with express permission from the programming committee
- According to CSDC policy, each accepted presenter will receive one (1) discounted conference registration; annual discounted rates may vary
- Presenters must confirm they have reviewed and agree to CSDC’s Diversity Guidelines
- Note: When submitting a proposal as a vendor or other support organization that works with charter schools, CSDC strongly encourages a co-presenting charter school client representative. CSDC prioritizes proposals with strong charter leaders as presenters.
- Other
Proposals will be reviewed by CSDC’s programming selection committee using the following criteria:
- Unique content that is aligned with current events and trending issues for the charter sector
- Aligns to strands/topics listed above
- Practical application
- Data on proven outcomes
- Specificity and quality of content
- A creative, catchy, and precise session title of no more than 15 words that speaks to the heart of the content and focal areas
- A clear, concise description that explains what is being addressed, the practice or evidence that will be demonstrated, and what tools, resources, or knowledge attendees will walk away with (session descriptions should be no more than 150 words)
- A clear objective—what attendees will learn because of your presentation
- Presenter(s) experience and expertise
- Interaction and opportunities for audience participation
- Quality handouts/tools for attendees to takeaway - a must
- Level of commercial bias (if any)
- Other
Critical Presenter Deadlines
APR 6 | BEGIN PROPOSAL
The CFP for the 2026 CSDC Conference opens.
MAY 31 | SUBMIT PROPOSAL
Completed proposals must be submitted through the portal by 11:59PM PDT.
JUL 10 | RECEIVE DETERMINATION
By this date, CSDC will confirm accepted sessions via email. CSDC will also notify those whose sessions were not selected for this year’s conference.
JUL 17 | ACCEPT INVITATION
If invited, presenters must use the presenter portal to confirm their intention to present and finalize their profiles (titles, bios, social media links, and headshots along with any edits to session titles or descriptions) by this date. If invite is not accepted by this date, session will be canceled; CSDC will take a reasonable number of measures to contact an accepted presenting group before canceling.
Upon confirming their sessions, presenters are urged to:
- Register promptly for the conference at the discounted presenter rate
- Book a flight to Sacramento International Airport (SMF)
- Reserve a room under CSDC’s discounted room block at nearby host hotels. Beware of room block poachers! Trust only information posted on the CSDC Conference website and/or sent by CSDC (from the @chartercenter.org or @csdcconference.org domains), not third-party/unofficial entities claiming to offer discounts or accommodations.
- Review the schedule and stay tuned for programming going live (below)!
AUG 10 | PROGRAMMING GOES LIVE, PROMOTE SESSION
All programming goes live on the conference website! Use CSDC-provided social cards provided in the presenter portal to promote your session on social media.
OCT 19 OR OCT 27 | ATTEND ORIENTATION
Confirmed presenters must attend one of the two 30-minute presenter orientations listed below. (Links will be included in emails to presenters who have accepted their sessions by the deadline above.)
- OCT 19 | 10:00AM PDT
- OCT 27 | 1:00PM PDT
NOV 9 | UPLOAD MATERIALS
Presentation files and resources uploaded to presenter portal by 5:00PM PDT.
NOV 16-18 | PRESENT SESSION
We can’t wait to see your presentation in Sacramento on November 16-18!
