ORLANDO, Fla. – The Florida Department of Education is investigating the graduation rates of alternative charter schools after a ProPublica report about a certain Orange County charter school that has allegedly served as the silent release valve for some nearby high schools by taking in students who couldn’t graduate on time.

At the meeting of the state Board of Education on Wednesday, Pam Stewart, the Florida Commissioner, said that the department will do a systematic examination to find out if there are any necessary actions to be taken.

Stewart said that the reason for the issue to be potentially concerning, especially is if it is done inappropriately and without good reason, is that graduation rates of the school district might not be based on the performance of students.

The ProPublica report was about Sunshine High School which is a charter school in Orlando that is run by the Accelerated Learning Solutions, a for-profit management company. From the report, it is stated that the Olympia High School in Orlando held assemblies where some ALS representatives talked to students and told them that they can catch up on some credits when they enroll at Sunshine.

The report said that in sending the worst achievers of Olympia and other high schools to the charter school, the former can keep their graduation rates high.

According to the ProPublica report, Sunshine used a loophole in Florida’s regulations so they reported no dropouts by classifying the students who left the traditional schools as entering some adult education programs. However, the charter school cannot confirm whether that really happened.

Barbara Jenkins, the Orange County Superintendent, called the article false. She also said that the Orange County public schools are just offering an alternative way for the students to get their diploma in high school. The OCPS also shared that the district has looked into the issue of the local high schools pushing their low-performing students into this charter school. However, they found that there is no practice of the said forced replacement.

Cheryl Etters, the department spokesperson, said that the state’s review of the graduation data will also include a number of alternative schools which will include Sunshine. The examination will also focus on the number of seniors who transferred to the alternative schools within their final high school year.

Gary Chartrand, one of the Board members, has described the ProPublica report to be a very serious allegation which they wanted to resolve as quickly as possible. Marva Johnson, the Board Chair, said she wants the review to also include historical data to track the efficiency of the program.