A charter system is a local school system that is operating under the terms of a contract between the local Board of Education and the State Board of Education as provided by the Charter Systems Act. A charter system provides the opportunity for teachers, administrators, parents, and school boards to have greater flexibility to determine the educational needs of students within their district and requires a certain degree of school level governance in the system. To become a charter system, the local school system must submit a charter school petition to the Department of Education after such petition has been approved by the local board. As a charter system all schools within the system are charter schools.