The Ohio Board of Education has voted to recoup more than $19 million in overpayments to the state’s largest online public charter school that closed its doors last month.
The board voted 15 to 0 Monday, directing the state Department of Education to take whatever measures necessary to recover the funds from ECOT—the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow—for the 2016-2017 school year.
Board member Nick Owens of Georgetown spoke in support of the resoultion during the Monday meeting, saying ECOT should have tracked students’ hourly participation and not just enrollment numbers.
“It is clear that ECOT did not provide proper documentation of student participation for the 2016-2017 school year. This is the second year in a row,” he said.
ODE had previously reduced funding for ECOT after the state found it had also overpaid the school for the 2015-2016 academic year. That reduced funding led the school to close in January.
ECOT is contesting the reduced payments and final arguments in the case will be heard by the Ohio Supreme Court Tuesday.