The Cincinnati Public School District says it will not lose millions of dollars after violating, what it calls a business rule, in a state scrubbing investigation.
At a news conference CPS called the accusations a misinterpretation of the constantly changing requirements from the Ohio Department of Education. To make their point, school officials displayed a binder containing 500 pages on how to report attendance data. Teachers Union President Julie Sellers pointed out an omission from the ODE on its own website.
"Well, during the middle of the night on August 25, 2012 at 2:37am they changed, they put up chapter 2, because there was no chapter 2 for districts to even follow those guidelines."
Sellers says the changes coupled with thousands of the district's students withdrawing every year make it difficult to comply with every rule. Superintendent Mary Ronan says the state requires all missing student cases to go through the court for truancy. To avoid getting state money for the students, Ronan says the district clears them from the rolls before October without going through the courts.
"Auditors are scary people, so we'll comply. I mean I'm going to be brutally frank. We'll certainly comply this year but we'd still like clarification."
That clarification will come from the Ohio Department of Education.
