HARRISON TOWNSHIP -- A new report from the Ohio State Auditors Office shows four more Ohio schools removed poor-performing students from attendance rolls, a practice known as "scrubbing." Northridge Local Schools was one district listed in the latest audit investigation.
The report includes 126 pages of documentation and says Northridge had 59 students who did not have supporting documentation available in the student files to support breaks in enrollment related to late admission or withdrawal reason codes within Esther Dennis Middle School and Northridge High School.
Attendance records for 43 high school students were checked, 19 of them had discrepancies.
"High school students had withdrawal forms on file that had notes to re-enroll the kids at a later date so they actually dis-enrolled them and put notes in be sure to remember to re-enroll so right there it was kind of a smoking gun right there in the file," said David Yost, Ohio Auditor.
Twenty-three students withdrew to be home schooled and re-enrolled for the next school year. Yost says the Education Service Center approves all homeschooling for all local districts. He said his office received the list of students approved by the area ESC for Northridge. None of the students listed as withdrawn to homeschooling were on the approval list, according to Yost.
ABC 22 reporter Annette Peagler contacted Northridge Superintendent David Jackson who said his office is looking into the auditor's report. He refused to go on camera with us, but provided this statement.
"We will take the information in his final report seriously, and are awaiting the specific details regarding the exceptions that have been identified. Once this information is received, we will be better able to evaluate our practices and to modify those practices in order to eliminate errors in the future"
Yost explained to us why school districts participate in scrubbing. He said one is to get additional funding. He said if your district's attendance isn't up to par, you don't get as many federal dollars. Yost also said districts do this before statewide testing. If there is a break in attendance, the student's test score will not count.
"It wasn't a matter of simple human error it was a deliberate attempt to circumvent the rules," said Yost.
There are currently nine Ohio school districts accused of "scrubbing."
Northridge schools received an "Excellent" rating on their Ohio State Report Card for 2011-2012. The auditor's finding will go to the U.S. Department of Education for further review.
The report includes 126 pages of documentation and says Northridge had 59 students who did not have supporting documentation available in the student files to support breaks in enrollment related to late admission or withdrawal reason codes within Esther Dennis Middle School and Northridge High School.
Attendance records for 43 high school students were checked, 19 of them had discrepancies.
"High school students had withdrawal forms on file that had notes to re-enroll the kids at a later date so they actually dis-enrolled them and put notes in be sure to remember to re-enroll so right there it was kind of a smoking gun right there in the file," said David Yost, Ohio Auditor.
Twenty-three students withdrew to be home schooled and re-enrolled for the next school year. Yost says the Education Service Center approves all homeschooling for all local districts. He said his office received the list of students approved by the area ESC for Northridge. None of the students listed as withdrawn to homeschooling were on the approval list, according to Yost.
ABC 22 reporter Annette Peagler contacted Northridge Superintendent David Jackson who said his office is looking into the auditor's report. He refused to go on camera with us, but provided this statement.
"We will take the information in his final report seriously, and are awaiting the specific details regarding the exceptions that have been identified. Once this information is received, we will be better able to evaluate our practices and to modify those practices in order to eliminate errors in the future"
Yost explained to us why school districts participate in scrubbing. He said one is to get additional funding. He said if your district's attendance isn't up to par, you don't get as many federal dollars. Yost also said districts do this before statewide testing. If there is a break in attendance, the student's test score will not count.
"It wasn't a matter of simple human error it was a deliberate attempt to circumvent the rules," said Yost.
There are currently nine Ohio school districts accused of "scrubbing."
Northridge schools received an "Excellent" rating on their Ohio State Report Card for 2011-2012. The auditor's finding will go to the U.S. Department of Education for further review.