HARRISBURG Online school must provide pupils service

HARRISBURG (AP) -- A troubled online charter school that was ordered to shut down will be providing $120,000 in special education services for pupils who did not receive them during the 2002-03 school year, state education officials said Friday.
The Einstein Academy Charter School will be using funds from an escrow account to compensate 13 children for services they should have received, Education Department spokeswoman Shanna McClintock said.
The types of services to be provided vary from pupil to pupil, but further details were not immediately available, she said.
Other compensatory payments were authorized earlier in the summer for 52 other special education pupils, McClintock said.
School board order
The department ordered the Morrisville-based cyber charter school to close July 1 after the state Charter Appeals Board upheld the Morrisville school board's decision to revoke its charter.
The school board has alleged that, among other things, Einstein provided inadequate special education services and did not establish its administrative offices in the district.
Einstein officials have attributed the school's problems to school districts that withheld tuition payments and filed lawsuits challenging whether the school was operating legally under Pennsylvania's charter school law.
They are appealing the revocation to Commonwealth Court and are seeking a separate court order allowing the school to remain open during the appeal process.