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The central figure in the scam in which wealthy parents paid huge sums to cheat on standardised tests has been sentenced to three and a half years in Federal prison. The mastermind of the sprawling college admissions scam known as Operation Varsity Blues pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, money laundering, and conspiracy

An investigation at Baltimore city school found that administrators schemed to inflate enrollment, pressured teachers to change grades and scheduled students into classes that didn’t exist. Over a three-year period, about 100 students remained on the rolls but didn’t attend the school. The school operated evening and summer courses designed to allow students to make up credits, but the courses didn’t meet standards. In some cases, unqualified teachers were assigned to teach the classes, and in other cases, staff members were named as teachers of record for a class they never taught.

A federal lawsuit accuses New York City and thousands of other school districts of defrauding special needs students by depriving them of hands-on therapies during the pandemic. According to a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Education, city educators obtained the consent from special needs parents before swapping distance learning for hands-on therapies. Nevertheless, many parents have not received any services whatsoever, not even remote services.

An audit reveals that Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy wrongly received $68.7 million in state payments by improperly claiming students as enrolled between 2011 and 2019 even though they had no online course activity. The two schools operated under shared administration and declared 7,200 students last year. However, they closed last summer after national officials cut off funding.

A 2019 report showed that $6.5 billion in foreign gifts to U.S. institutions were not reported. To hold colleges and universities accountable and ensure that their reporting is full, accurate, and transparent, the Department of Education enforces Section 117 of the Higher Education, which requires colleges to report all gifts and contracts involving foreign sources worth $250,000 or more.

Data from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights shows that 29 per cent of teachers were considered chronically absent, missing more than 10 days of school in 2015-2016. This is near twice the 15 per cent of students who are chronically absent. As a result, a number of school districts included teacher and student absence measures in their school accountability system.

Members of a special team at the Education Department that had been investigating widespread abuses by for-profit colleges have been marginalized, reassigned or instructed to focus on other matters, according to current and former employees. The investigative team had been created in 2016 after the collapse of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges, which set off a wave of complaints from students about predatory activities at for-profit schools. The institutions had been accused of widespread fraud that involved misrepresenting enrolment benefits, job placement rates and program offerings, which could leave students with huge debts and no degrees.

Ohio Auditor’s opponent in the state attorney general’s race said that he should immediately have referred to authorities a whistleblower’s allegations that the state’s then-largest online charter school intentionally inflated attendance figures. The Education Department previously found that the school significantly over-reported its number of full-time-equivalent students and owed the state $60 million for the 2015-2016 school year. Another $19 million penalty was assessed for 2016-2017.