Columbus – The following statement may be attributed to Auditor of State Dave Yost regarding the Ohio Department of Education’s actions following the release of the statewide audit of student attendance data:

"These corrective plans are the right first step, and I commend the Department for taking quick action," Auditor Yost said.  "But this will do nothing to fix the weak, 'just trust me' system of self-reporting that opened the door to these practices in the first place.  It's time for ODE to design a brand-new system so that parents, children and educators alike will be confident that information is true and resources go where they should.

"The new system needs to be run on the ‘three I's’:

“Information — all the necessary information to make good decisions
Independence — external accountability and validation of the data
Integrity — Measurements need to all be of the same thing, with the same yardstick, and not be able to be easily changed by a single actor.”

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The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio, is responsible for auditing more than 5,600 state and local government agencies.  Under the direction of Auditor Dave Yost, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies and promotes transparency in government.

Contact:
Carrie Bartunek
Press Secretary
614-644-1111