Last year, Gov. John Kasich signed a bill that requires charter schools to meet certain performance, accountability and reporting requirements.

Recently, Ohio’s largest online charter school, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, or ECOT, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education and attempted to block the state’s audit of its attendance records by requesting a temporary restraining order.

On Monday, a judge rejected the request and audits were expected to begin this week.

The reason the state wants to audit ECOT is because a preliminary state review raised questions about ECOT’s attendance figures, which help determine a school’s funding. ECOT students work on computers instead of in actual classrooms, so it shouldn’t be surprising that log-in records would be important auditing tools to ensure students are getting the best education possible in a non-traditional setting.

ECOT leaders say the state is changing the rules on electronic schools and that the state is in violation of an attendance agreement that was signed in 2003 that says students “must be presented with at least 920 hours of learning opportunities.” ECOT also says the Department of Education agreed privately not to request log-in times this year and says losing its lawsuit could mean shutting the school down.

The bottom line is, any school that takes public funds for operation should be held accountable for the manner in which those funds are spent and the success or failure of its students, attendance being one of those crucial factors for success.