ECOT endured despite years of warning signs

After 16 years of lax oversight and about a billion dollars in taxpayer funding, in 2016 the state Department of Education launched its first thorough examination of the charter giant's student attendance claims in more than a decade. Suddenly, ECOT could no longer simply "certify" that its students were attending school, but had to back it up with attendance records - which largely didn't exist.  That single review set in motion the falling dominoes that led ECOT's