Dive Brief:
- While state auditor Dave Yost has already closed General Chappie James Leadership Academy in Dayton, OH, he says new leads in an investigation on mismanagement indicate that the school defrauded taxpayers of $1.2 million.
- According to Yost, the school collected per-pupil funding for students who were not in the school. For example, one of the kids listed in their attendance records was in jail, and another had moved out of the state.
- While the school claimed to have 459 students over a three year period, it couldn't prove 220 of them ever attended the school.
Dive Insight:
This case follows another high-profile truancy fraud investigation with an online charter school in the state. While that school, Ohio Virtual Academy, has been cleared of allegations that it collected per-pupil dollars for hundreds of chronically truant students it kept on its books, the investigation did find that 12 students had still been on the books beyond their "accurate withdrawal dates." Between both of these cases, major questions form about the state's accountability processes. While schools are culpable, the state also holds a large degree of responsibility in regulating funding.