By Trevor Aaronson
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
K12, the nation’s largest online educator with business in 43 Florida counties, described as overblown questions about the company’s use of uncertified teachers in violation of state law.
The public statement, released Tuesday afternoon, followed a report by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and StateImpact Florida disclosing that the Department of Education Office of Inspector General is reviewing internal K12 emails that show company officials asked state-certified teachers to sign class rosters that included students they hadn’t taught.
In one email, a K12 manager asked a certified teacher to sign that she taught 112 students in Seminole County. Of those students, she’d only taught seven.
In its statement, K12 said it does not believe conclusions drawn from the Seminole County Public Schools records and internal K12 emails are correct.
“K12 respects the integrity of the IG’s process, and therefore will not comment on the substance of that process until the IG has had the time to complete the work and issue its finding,” the statement read.
Following the FCIR-StateImpact Florida report, K12’s stock price fell 13 percent.