Special Counsel Investigating Parent Company Of OC Charter School

OKLAHOMA CITY - Further to a report featured on the Patch News website last year, the State of Oklahoma's Attorney General has announced the appointment of a special counsel to review audits conducted against Epic Youth Services LLC, the Oklahoma-based parent company of Epic Charter School of Anaheim.

In announcing the appointment, Attorney General Mike Hunter explained that due to the number of continuing investigations into Epic and ongoing litigation regarding the company's financial records, it was necessary for the AG's office staff to recuse themselves from reviewing the audit, hence necessitating today's appointment.

The Special Counsel was announced as Melissa McLawhorn Houston, an attorney with more than two decades of experience in public policy and state government. Houston has previously served in a variety of roles, including Oklahoma Labor Commissioner and Secretary for Education, and prior to that as a member of the state Attorney General's office.

“I appreciate Attorney General Hunter’s confidence in me to lead the review of this audit,” Houston said. “There has been much scrutiny and inquiry surrounding Epic Charter Schools for many years. Oklahomans deserve a fair and unbiased look at the findings, and that is exactly what I am prepared to give them.”

As reported on this page last year, Epic Charter School is one of several schools owned and managed by Epic Youth Services LLC, the parent company under investigation, which is a for-profit company headquartered in a private house in a residential neighborhood of Oklahoma City.

As the investigations are being conducted across multiple agencies at both the state and federal level, the District Attorney for the county where Epic's office is located agreed to allow the state Attorney General to assume control of reviewing the audit and any other allegations surrounding the charter school and make decisions as to appropriate legal action.

In addition to the Anaheim location Epic Youth Services operates charters in at least two other states and has applied to open charter schools in at least two more.

In Oklahoma Epic owns the largest 'virtual' (online) school in the state. According to reports in Tulsa World, Epic received "tens of millions of dollars in state funding" during the 2019 school year alone.

One of the issues that drew the audit was whether the schools had been enrolling students already actively enrolled in private schools – a practice known as 'concurrent enrollment' and specifically outlawed by California's charter school laws (EdCode Section 47602b).

The Anaheim location is chartered by the Orange County Department of Education. Patch has reached out to the school, the county and the state Department of Education for comment. No response has been received at this time.

The prior story can be viewed at : https://patch.com/california/longbeach-ca/parent-company-oc-charter-school-under-federal-investigation