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State Auditor Accuses Former Charter School Of Fraud

State Auditor Dave Yost says charter school padded attendance.
Karen Kasler
/
Ohio Public Radio

  A special audit has found that a now-closed Ohio charter school padded its rolls by nearly half, and that may have brought it $1.1 million in tax dollars it shouldn’t have received. State Auditor David Yost says that General Chappie James Leadership Academy near Dayton reported having 459 students in attendance, but only 239 students could be documented.

“If you have three percent or five percent of your student population doesn’t have documentation, that might be bad record keeping,” said Yost. “When nearly half of your kids don’t have a file, there’s no documentation, that’s not a mistake, that’s not bad bookkeeping – that’s fraud.”

Yost says he’s turned the audit over to prosecutors and the Ohio Attorney General. Kids Count of Dayton was the school’s sponsor. That group had problems a few years ago with misspent funds and potential conflicts in oversight at another now-closed charter school.