COLUMBUS, Ohio (WTVN)--Over a year after the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow shut its doors for good, the State of Ohio has reached a settlement with the online charter school's former sponsor.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced the deal Wednesday with the Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West. The company will repay the state $879-thousand, representing the sponsorship fees it received from ECOT.
Yost said, "For perspective, these dollars could have paid for 15 teachers."
The school shut down in January 2018 after the ESC ended its sponsorship of ECOT. The Ohio Board of Education found that ECOT lacked documentation on attendance data for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years.
ECOT was ordered to pay back $79-million it received from the state for the school years in question. Yost says there are still four different cases involving ECOT pending in the state's court system.
In Ohio, charter schools are not allowed to operate without a sponsor.