Epic Charter School changing how it takes attendance after state investigation

After intense criticism of its attendance policies, Epic Charter School now takes attendance through daily classwork, a significant change from its prior method.

The 28,500 students enrolled in Epic are counted present if they complete daily instructional activities. No longer is attendance based on the number of assignments students finish every quarter of the school year.

Epic Superintendent Bart Banfield said he believes the new practice will alleviate concerns from state officials, who placed the school on probation in part because of truancy rates and inaccurate attendance data.

Epic’s previous protocol contributed to the malleable schedules that made virtual schooling attractive to some families. Banfield said daily attendance strikes a “delicate balance” between the autonomy students desire and the necessity to keep them engaged on a regular basis.

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“We still want to provide that flexibility that Epic has been known for,” he said. “But at the same time, we also recognize that based on all things we have been through over the last couple of years, there is a desire from a multitude of stakeholders to see more transparency in terms of what our students are doing on a daily basis and on a weekly basis.”

Epic Charter School attendance policy change a product of OSDE investigation

An Oklahoma State Department of Education investigation found "troubling patterns” in Epic’s attendance data, state schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said in a June news conference.

About 5% of Epic students, or 3,400 schoolchildren, in the 2020-21 school year were absent 75% of the time they were enrolled, state officials wrote in a 76-page report released this summer. Investigators found almost half of those students advanced to the next grade level.

An algorithm in the school’s online attendance system kept students enrolled who likely should have been withdrawn for too many absences, state officials said.

About 4,800 students were absent for 14 consecutive days but were counted present on the 15th day, the date when state law requires they be unenrolled for truancy, according to the state’s investigation.

Officials said these students were then absent for another 14 consecutive days. Epic then could count these students toward its annual funding, the state reported.

"It is conceivable that the algorithm was written to allow Epic to continue having students enrolled who, by law, should not have been," state investigators wrote.

Banfield said daily attendance creates more transparency and eliminates the 14-1-14 pattern. He said the school received "very positive" feedback from state authorities.

The state Education Department consulted with Epic as the school reconsidered its attendance procedures, but it hasn't viewed the updated protocols, agency spokesperson Rob Crissinger said.

"Attendance serves as an important indicator to ensure virtual programs are reaching all students," Crissinger wrote in a email to The Oklahoman. "The shift to tracking daily attendance can provide a more real-time view of student engagement."

How is attendance counted at Epic Charter School?

To maintain regular engagement, teachers assign bell-ringers for students to complete daily. In a traditional classroom, a bell-ringer is warm-up work given at the beginning of the class period.

Other instructional activities — such as meeting with a teacher or going on a school field trip — also count toward attendance at Epic.

The school plans to implement an automated system called Grade Passback to pull all assignments straight to teachers’ digital gradebooks. Gradebook scores would funnel automatically into the school’s attendance system to count students present or absent for the day.

This could save teachers 16 hours a week they would have spent manually entering grades and attendance, said Roger Kimball, deputy superintendent of technology.

Families are notified if a student completes no work after five, 10 and 14 days.

“It then allows us to track students who were not engaged,” Kimball told the school board Wednesday. “If they weren’t doing the minimum, then they certainly weren’t being educated. That’s a flag that something needs to happen. We need to contact that parent.”

Epic’s questionable attendance protocols originated from the school’s prior management, state officials said.

Epic’s co-founders, Ben Harris and David Chaney, operated the school for a decade through their company, Epic Youth Services. Chaney for a time was also the school’s superintendent before ceding the position to Banfield in 2019.

Throughout Harris and Chaney’s tenure, Epic was the focus of criminal investigations, state audits and heavy public scrutiny.

In May 2021, the school board terminated its contract with Epic Youth Services and cut ties with Harris and Chaney.

The co-founders and their chief financial officer, Josh Brock, were charged in June with a litany of financial crimes stemming from their management of Epic.

Harris, Chaney and Brock have denied any wrongdoing.

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma's Epic Charter School revamps attendance rules