Ohio Community E-Schools Cost Study

Prepared for the Ohio Department of Education in 2022

Augenblick, Palaich and Associates (APA), in partnership with WestEd, was awarded a contract by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) to study the resources needed for Ohio community e-schools to provide a quality education. The work built on Ohio’s Fair School Funding Plan that was passed into law in 2021 for implementation in fiscal years 2022 and 2023. This study is intended to examine the costs associated with successfully serving community e-school students, both in general education (GenEd) and dropout prevention and recovery (DOPR) e-school settings.

To understand the costs faced by community e-schools to serve students, the study undertook four elements:

1. a literature review,

2. a survey of e-schools,

3. focus groups, and

4. professional judgment panels.

Based on the study findings, the following recommendations were provided:

• Community e-school base cost estimates using the professional judgment approach are very similar to the base cost of $7,352 in FY22 and should be funded utilizing a similar methodology to sites receiving this base amount. However, it should be noted that this figure would be sufficient only if the additional recommendations are addressed below.

• With the large variation in headcount versus funded enrollment the study team would recommend a workgroup be created to identify approaches to student count that allow for recognition of the efforts community e-schools must make to enroll, provide orientation to, and work to continue to engage students in the education process, while balancing the concerns about ensuring funding only for students engaged in the education process.

• Community e-schools should receive DPIA and EL funding to be consistent with how other settings in the state, including e-schools in traditional districts, are funded. This funding will allow districts to more successfully serve their student populations.

• The state could consider providing a size adjustment for smaller, independent community e-school settings. It is important that such an adjustment does not provide a perverse incentive for new or current community e-schools to simply create a number of smaller sites to increase funding, so provisions should be made to consider which sites would be eligible for this type of funding. This could include not providing size adjustment funding for sites that utilize a common management organization or are closely aligned with a school district.