---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION -- ESTABLISHMENT OF CHARTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS"
description: "Bars the council from granting approval to create or expand a charter school beginning operations in 26-27 school year and bars the state from approving or appropriating funds to a new charter school not approved before July 1, 2025."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2026"
identifier: "SB 2787"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 2787 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bissaillon", "Ciccone", "McKenney", "Murray", "Patalano", "Pearson", "Thompson", "Urso", "Zurier"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 15
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2026-03-04"
last_action: "2026-06-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/82315bf7-20cb-4876-8840-72fe91b909dc"
source_url: "https://status.rilegislature.gov/"
source_hash: "9d36a8a4d0ee013ea12daba4e6525829fd97453fe170182d83b6b16f0b592f97"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island SB 2787 (2026) — AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION -- ESTABLISHMENT OF CHARTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Bars the council from granting approval to create or expand a charter school beginning operations in 26-27 school year and bars the state from approving or appropriating funds to a new charter school not approved before July 1, 2025.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **2787 SUB A as amended** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText26/SenateText26/S2787Aaa.pdf)

## Votes

- Passage — **33–2** (pass) · upper
- Passage — **31–6** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Bissaillon — primary (person)
- Ciccone — primary (person)
- McKenney — primary (person)
- Murray — primary (person)
- Patalano — primary (person)
- Pearson — primary (person)
- Thompson — primary (person)
- Urso — primary (person)
- Zurier — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2026-03-04** 03/04/2026 Introduced, referred to Senate Education `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2026-05-08** 05/08/2026 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (05/13/2026)
- **2026-05-13** 05/13/2026 Committee recommended measure be held for further study `committee-failure`
- **2026-05-29** 05/29/2026 Scheduled for consideration (06/02/2026)
- **2026-06-01** 06/01/2026 Proposed Substitute `substitution`
- **2026-06-02** 06/02/2026 Committee recommends passage of Sub A `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-06-02** 06/02/2026 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/04/2026) `reading-3`
- **2026-06-04** 06/04/2026 Senate passed Sub A as amended (floor amendment) `passage`
- **2026-06-05** 06/05/2026 Referred to House Education `referral-committee`
- **2026-06-06** 06/06/2026 Scheduled for consideration (06/08/2026)
- **2026-06-08** 06/08/2026 Committee recommends passage of Sub A as amended in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-06-08** 06/08/2026 Placed on House Calendar (06/10/2026) `reading-3`
- **2026-06-10** 06/10/2026 House passed Sub A as amended in concurrence `passage`
- **2026-06-16** 06/16/2026 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2026-06-18** 06/18/2026 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/82315bf7-20cb-4876-8840-72fe91b909dc`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).