State Software Switch Results In Arizona Charter Schools Missing Audit Deadline
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The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools met Monday to discuss a litany of issues about charter schools across the state, including how some schools missed their audit deadline because of a database switch by the Arizona Department of Education.
The board required all 329 charter schools to submit a 2016 audit by mid-November, but about a dozen schools missed the deadline.
Officials with the Ahwatukee Foothills Prep Early College High School said at the meeting their charter-school audit is in limbo as they wait on the ADE to verify school data. And they weren’t the only one with that problem.
ADE spokesman Charles Tack says the department is switching to new software tracking the number of students.
“And our goal is to make it as painless as possible through this transition and also to make sure the right amount of money is getting to the right school at the right time,” Tack said.
At the charter meeting, several school officials said they had been underpaid tens of thousands of dollars from the state in 2016 as a result of the switch.
