The state approved four charter schools on Friday morning among them the College Achieve Paterson Charter School, according to the New Jersey Department of Education.

College Achieve Paterson Charter School will open on September 2017 with 276 students in grades K-1 and 5-6. By the fourth year the school will have 961 students in kindergarten through ninth grades, according to the department

This is the charter’s second location. It operates College Achieve Central Charter School in Plainfield. The charter boasts it prepares students to “excel and graduate from the top colleges and universities in the nation.”

The state also approved three other charter schools:

• College Achieve Greater Asbury Park Charter School to serve Asbury Park and Neptune Township. This school open in September 2017 with 276 students in K-1 and 5-6 and then expand to K-9 with 961 students by fourth year.
• Ocean Academy Charter School to serve Lakewood students in K-2 with 160 students in the first year and expand to K-5 with 340 students. This school will also open in September 2017.
• Ailanthus Charter School will open in September 2018 to serve 120 K-1 students in Franklin Township and New Brunswick. It will expand to K-4 by fourth year and enroll 300 students.

The approved schools must undergo the department’s preparedness review to determine whether each has the academic, fiscal, and organization components in place to ensure a high quality education for students, according to the state. Successful schools will be granted charters in July 2017.

New Jersey has 88 charter schools with 50,723 seats, according to the state.

This is Paterson’s sixth charter school in a district where advocates and school board members have expressed grave concerns over the siphoning of funds from the district budget to charter schools.