Academic Distress Commission

About the audits

School districts that chronically underperform on the Ohio School Report Card are subject to academic oversight and may be placed under the supervision of an Academic Distress Commission. While the laws governing Academic Distress have changed several times, districts have always had the ability to be released from supervision if certain academic benchmarks were met. In 2021, as a result of the 134th General Assembly’s state budget bill, ORC § 3302.103 became effective, offering a new pathway for release.

Under this provision, each district was required to create an Academic Improvement Plan that was to be approved by the Ohio Department of Education (now known as the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce). In addition, the Ohio Auditor of State was required to conduct a performance audit of each district currently in Academic Distress within a three-year period. At the time the legislation became effective, East Cleveland, Youngstown, and Lorain City School Districts were under the academic distress designation.

These reports are a culmination of the work conducted by the Ohio Performance Team to provide the legislatively mandated performance audits to the districts. Our audit work focused on each district’s allocation of financial resources, select operational areas, and progress towards achieving Academic Improvement Plan goals.

On October 3, 2023, as a result of the 135th General Assembly’s state budget bill, Lorain City Schools was released from Academic Distress and the Academic Distress Commission was dissolved. However, because our audit work was nearly complete at the time of this dissolution, we determined it was in the best interest of the public to finalize and release our audit results for the district along with the two districts that remain in Academic Distress.