Section 451.20  Application for Certificate of Approval

a)         A school, as defined in Section 1 of the Act, shall submit an original application for its first approval year on forms provided by the Superintendent, unless exempt under Section 1.1 of the Act.

b)         The school shall include with the original application the information required by Sections 6 and 7 of the Act, the fee(s) required by Section 10 of the Act, copies of its policies, procedures, and operations required by this Part, and its annual academic calendar.

c)         If the Superintendent finds that the original application is not complete, the application and fee(s) shall be returned to the school with a statement that certain required information is missing.

d)         If a completed original application is rejected, the Superintendent shall:  

1)         issue a written report specifying the reason for the rejection within forty-five (45) business days from receipt of the application;

2)         issue a certificate of approval only after the reasons for rejecting the application have been removed.

e)         If a school is in disagreement with the Superintendent's findings regarding its original application, it may, within sixty (60) business days of receipt of the application deficiency report, petition the Superintendent in writing for a reexamination of the application.  The petition shall include the reasons for disagreement with the Superintendent's findings, and documentation and exhibits supporting the school's contentions of approvability.  If, based on the petition and reexamination of the application, the Superintendent finds and issues a report stating that the school still has not fulfilled all requirements for approval, the school may make a written request within thirty (30) business days of receipt of this report for an informal hearing to show why it believes it has satisfied all application requirements.  The request will be granted within thirty (30) business days of receipt of that request.  If, as a result of the presentation by the applicant, the Superintendent determines that application deficiencies cannot be resolved, the Superintendent shall call for a hearing, as provided in Section 17 and Section 18 of the Act, to refuse to issue a Certificate of Approval; or if it appears that the school can resolve application deficiencies within the time limitations of subsection (f), the Superintendent shall allow the applicant to continue efforts to remove application deficiencies, subject to the provisions of subsection (f) of this Section.

f)          If the Superintendent finds a school has not satisfied the original application requirements within twelve (12) months from the date of receipt of the application, the school shall pay an additional $500 original application fee if the school continues the application process.

g)         A school or school extension which has not provided instruction in any approval year and that desires to resume operations in Illinois shall file an original application and pay the original application fee.

h)         A school shall submit a renewal application by April 1 of each year on forms provided by the Superintendent which update the information previously submitted by the school and which call for information that has not been reported by the school since the filing of the original application.