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Six former Alabama educators are facing dozens of conspiracy, identity theft and fraud charges in a wide-reaching federal probe into enrollment practices at virtual schools in the state.
Federal investigators say three former north Alabama educators conspired to fraudulently inflate enrollment data at virtual schools within their districts, triggering larger reimbursements from state education funds they then personally skimmed off.
Former Athens City Schools (ACS) Superintendent Trey Holladay and former Limestone County Superintendent Tom Sisk were both indicted, along with Deborah Irby Holladay, Trey Holladay s wife and a retired Athens teacher.
Prosecutors on Tuesday said the trio padded virtual school enrollment numbers with student data drawn from private schools in the Black Belt. The administrators claimed the students were receiving virtual instruction while remaining enrolled in their home schools and districts.
6 Alabama school officials charged with fraud, conspiracy in $7 million virtual schools scheme
Updated Feb 23, 2021;
Posted Feb 23, 2021
The Frank M. Johnson Jr. Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Montgomery. (Mike Cason/mcason@al.com)
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This story has been updated.
Six Alabama educators have been indicted in a years-long, lucrative fraud and conspiracy scheme involving virtual schools throughout the state.
Federal prosecutors say officials in Athens City Schools and Limestone County Schools, including two former superintendents, conspired to get more state funding by pretending to enroll full-time private students into the systems’ virtual schools. The two school districts were improperly paid around $7 million in state education funding for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years, according to federal officials.