As the Ohio Department of Education attempts to close the financial books on last school year, one thing is certain: Making sure charter schools get the right amount of money is no easy task.

The state is continuing to withhold or reduce payments to schools that educate about 1,700 charter-school students because they have been “flagged.” That means the state got conflicting claims about where the students lived or what schools they attended.

Although the number is down from about 5,000 flagged students this spring — mainly because a state computer system that charters and districts use to resolve enrollment disputes went down for maintenance — the 1,700 flags are still more than triple the number the state ended with last school year.

Out of 385 charters, 240 have been paid for students even though it is uncertain whether the students were enrolled at those schools. Other charters might have been shortchanged and are owed money by the state. To lessen the financial blow, the Ohio Department of Education has said it won’t reduce a charter’s payments by more than 5 percent in a month.

(Read more at the Dispatch)