Charter schools in CA are authorized by their local district or county office. IVA is authorized by the Long Beach Unified School District. This means that LBUSD verifies IVA's compliance in financials, credentials, and policies but that IVA is independent from the district. IVA hires their own credentialed teachers and staffs their own Principal and administrators, and office team. One distinction to this independence is for purposes of special education. Based on our Memorandum of Understanding with LBUSD, IVA is a school of the district for purposes of special education. This means IVA pays a percent of all SpEd costs annually based on the number of special education students educated at IVA. 

IVA is especially grateful for the ongoing review and guidance of James Suarez, LBUSD's Assistant Director of Equity, Access, and College & Career and point of contact for the charter school.