Kansas City Public Schools to return $192,730 after falsified attendance data

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    KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV/KSMO) — Kansas City Public Schools announced Tuesday that they will be returning $192,730 as a result of the recent investigation into attendance data falsifications.

Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, or DESE, confirmed the final amount owed in a communication with KCPS leadership, authorities said in a press release Tuesday.

On November 20, KCPS publicly shared the results of an independent investigation into reports regarding altered student attendance records over a period of three school years, 2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.

This investigation revealed that a small circle of KCPS employees changed student attendance records in the district’s student information system to increase the percentage of students who were reported as present for 90% of the school year.

These actions resulted in a higher percentage of students attending class being reported to the state and the district receiving a higher-than-earned score in the Missouri School Improvement Performance Standards, or MSIP. This misreporting also resulted in KCPS receiving more funding from the state than it was actually due, the release continued.

Missouri education officials use an Average Daily Attendance figure to determine attendance-related funding for schools. The ADA figure for KCPS was mostly insignificant in terms of monetary reimbursement compared to what was reported originally to DESE.

This means that KCPS received approximately $111,705 more than it should have, and Kansas City charter schools received approximately $81,025 less than they should have, resulting in KCPS’s amount due as $192,730.

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