An audit released last week based on a “surprise” head count at 30 charter schools in Ohio found that some were overreporting enrollment.
The state auditor’s office counted as many as 100 fewer students than some of the publicly financed but independently operated schools had told the state they should receive funding for. At a charter school in Youngstown, auditors walked in and found not a single student.
The most abysmal attendance rates were found at charter schools that enroll students who already have dropped out of a traditional public school and are at least a year behind. Those “dropout recovery” schools had, on average, a 50 percent attendance rate—a rate considered acceptable by the state education department.
