That’s because the full release of the 2011-2012 report cards for 614 traditional public school districts has been delayed for months because of a statewide attendance tampering investigation.

Many elements of the report cards already are known. The Ohio Department of Education plans Wednesday to release two final elements: the overall performance index for each district and building, and the “value-added” measure that rates students’ annual academic growth.

Ohio’s performance index scale ranges from academic emergency to excellent with distinction. A traditional A-through-F scale is being phased in beginning next year.

Rankings for about 80 districts with apparent irregularities will be flagged as the department re-examines their attendance data.

The $63 billion budget proposal for the two-year period beginning July 1 includes some controversial measures, including a new school funding formula and a massive tax-shift plan. It would cut the state’s graduated income tax while increasing state sales tax revenue.

Gov. Kasich has billed it as a $1.4 billion overall tax cut, while a liberal think tank says the tax shift would increase the overall tax burden for many Ohioans.

Meanwhile, a House education committee this week begins looking into the attendance keeping practices of Ohio school districts. The review begins as Ohio Auditor Dave Yost releases the results of an audit by his office. The investigation began after reports of widespread record changing in Columbus City Schools and districts in Toledo and suburban Cincinnati.

Click the play button above for a full preview of the week ahead for lawmakers.

The policy, aptly called the Whistleblower Reporting and Protection Policy, lays out what kind of misconduct Columbus City School employees should report and how to report it. And it protects informants from retribution.

Columbus is the latest of several Central Ohio districts in recent months to pass whistleblower rules.

State Auditor Dave Yost, the FBI and internal auditors are trying to get to the bottom of possible data manipulation.

And in November, Yost’s chief legal counsel Bill Owen accused school officials of intimidating employees talking with investigators.

“When I see a witness talk to an investigator and then call the next day crying that they are going to lose their job…that gives rise for concern.”

While the district denied the intimidation allegations, the state auditor’s office recommended it develop whistleblower rules. Previously, school employees could report suspected misconduct on the internal auditor’s webpage, but there was never a school board policy.

Harris, who said the rules are overdue, heeded the state auditor’s advice to draft them.

“Every organization needs some kind of policy to make sure that if there are individuals who need to report what they believe is wrongdoing then they need that opportunity to report,” she said.

The new whistleblower policy states employees are protected against retaliation if they report fraudulent or ethical wrongdoing, but the rules do not mention intimidation.

Superintendent Gene Harris says she feels that’s covered.

“I think this policy reflects best practices as it’s understood by the internal auditor, who has had time to review it, as well as our team,” Harris said. “So I think it reflects best practice and I think it covers everything it needs to cover.”

School employees have several channels to report fraudulent or ethical wrongdoing. While they can tell a supervisor, they don’t have to. Instead, they can give a tip through a district website or hotline. And workers can alert the state or district’s internal auditor of potential violations.

School board member Mike Wiles said he wanted to make sure employees knew they could file a report anonymously. The board approved his amendment to the policy that makes all tips to the internal auditor anonymous unless a worker chooses to “opt in” and give their name.

But internal auditor Carolyn Smith said sometimes employee names are needed to follow up a report.

And Harris also expressed concerns about anonymous tips.

“If the encouragement is that every report is anonymous, it may encourage people to act irresponsibly.”

Wiles also proposed requiring supervisors be disciplined for failing to report suspected misconduct. But the amendment did not pass.

“I would have liked a little stronger language with the removing the ‘may’ be disciplined and replaced it with ‘will’ be disciplined. I think that would have sent a stronger message,” he said.

The Ohio Department of Education has released school performance data delayed by a statewide attendance-tampering investigation.

Officials today released the partial report card results. The attendance rate, performance index and overall rating were omitted.

The 19-member state school board cleared the delay last month, fearing that underlying data might be flawed.

After allegations arose in three districts, state Auditor Dave Yost launched a statewide investigation into whether low-performing students are improperly removed from the rolls to boost school performance rankings and employee bonuses.

Because a host of funding and programming decisions hinges on the data, the state board later voted to release portions of the report cards unaffected by Yost’s probe.

Central Ohio School District Grades

All of Ohio Grades

A new evaluation of the Educational Management Information System, or EMIS, provided to The Associated Press highlights errors, delays, inconsistencies and a lack of training.

The districts are asking to work with the Ohio Department of Education to address problems they’ve experienced.

The call comes from districts in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, Akron, Canton and Youngstown.

Dave Yost is investigating allegations that certain Ohio districts might have manipulated data to boost performance ratings or employee bonuses.

Columbus City Schools Superintendent Gene Harris has announced she’ll retire when the school year ends as questions of unusual attendance and enrollment practices dog her district.

The investigation into whether some school districts retro-actively withdrew and re-enrolled students to obtain a better score on their state report card will not wrap up as early as the state auditor had hoped.

Ohio Auditor Dave Yost admits there have been some stumbling blocks during the probe. Yost says it’s been tough to find out exactly who has been taken off the rolls.

“There’s at least the equivalent of an urban school district out there that’s not counted in anyone’s grade cards.”

The raw list includes about 88,000 students. And Yost says some of those could be duplicates if a student transferred between districts multiple times. But the trouble is, “We don’t have kids’ names.”

That’s because, in Ohio, students are reported to the state by a number, not a name.

“We have to go to the local school building to pull the identity of that number,” he says.

And Yost says that has slowed down the investigation which already has logged more than 7,000 hours.

The auditor’s office has sought the assistance of Ohio State University statistics experts to develop a risk model that will help move the investigation forward. The model will be based on 100 school districts which have the highest percentage of students who took state aptitude tests and also were withdrawn from the district.

“Once we’ve got the model in place and we’ve validated it, we should be able to apply it to school buildings and identify those schools that we have a reasonable degree of confidence have no anomalies in their reporting process,” he says.

The schools with irregularities will be investigated. And Yost would like the model by October so he can expedite inquiries for districts with ballot initiatives in November.

“We think that the people have a right to know what’s going on in their school district,” he says. “And I want to hasten to say, in most places, there’s probably not going to be an issue.”

Despite the investigation, Yost urged state school board members to release this year’s district report cards, even though they may be skewed.

“The data was probably bad last year in the same way. And there’s conceivably a benefit comparing year to year what was going on,” he says.

Yost says releasing the report cards will not hinder the investigation and actually, in his opinion, would penalize the systems “playing by the rules.”

State education board members are set to decide Tuesday whether to release any figures.

Acting superintendent of public instruction, Michael Sawyers, recommends releasing preliminary scores with a disclaimer stating the numbers are subject to change due to the investigation.

“Absent us doing that, I think we’re giving the false impression to parents and families throughout the state that this is all finished and it’s done and over,” Sawyers says. “And they’re going to say ‘what’s the outcome.’ I don’t have those results. But to be fair to everyone, I think we should provide the information that’s readily available.”

But some board members, including Michael Collins, are concerned about the disclaimer. Collins says he fears it would incite questions from parents about whether their school district is involved in the attendance data investigation.

But Sawyers argued not releasing anything would be akin to saying schools are guilty of data rigging.

State school board president Debe Terhar expects members to pass a resolution to release preliminary report card information.

“It’s the most logical conclusion to this. So it would be nice that we pass that,” Terhar says.

Yost says so far he thinks most schools systems will be clear of any data manipulation. The final investigation will likely be complete after the first of the year.

The state Board of Education voted unanimously Monday for the delay as it awaits results of a probe by Ohio Auditor Dave Yost.

Related: What the Ohio 2012 School Report Card Delay Means for Parents, Teachers and Communities

Acting Ohio Superintendent Michael Sawyers recommended not releasing the report cards until the state can be sure the underlying data is accurate.

“The report cards are intended to give an accurate picture of how well schools are doing, and they shouldn’t be released with a cloud hanging over their reliability,” Sawyers said. “It’s not fair to the parents and educators who depend on them to see how their schools are doing.”

Yost launched a statewide probe after irregular enrollment and attendance practices were discovered in Columbus, Toledo and suburban Cincinnati districts. He’s investigating whether low-performing students were improperly removed from rolls to improve school performance rankings.

Sawyers said the U.S. Department of Education has signed off on a temporary delay until the board meets again in September. The release had been scheduled for Aug. 29.

Ohio was required to issue the local report cards this month in exchange for having certain requirements of federal No Child Left Behind Act waived, Sawyers said. But he said federal education officials agree that questions about the integrity of the underlying data need to be answered before the reports are issued.

The report cards give parents and other members of the public a snapshot of each school’s year-over-year performance and how it compares with state education standards.

Building rankings drawn from the reports help determine whether students are eligible for the EdChoice program, which provides vouchers for private schools to students at consistently underperforming public schools.

They also can determine whether charter schools that pledged to outperform their public-school counterparts stay open.

“The trickle-down effect of this will be massive,” said Emmy Partin, director of Ohio policy and research for the Fordham Institute. “When you think of all the state programs that will be delayed or unable to move forward because they’re dependent on this data, it’s huge.”

Sawyers said further delays will have to be negotiated, depending on how long Yost’s investigation takes.

“He’s trying to expedite matters,” Sawyers said. “It’s my understanding he’s in districts already, with boots on the ground.”

At Yost’s request, the Ohio Department of Education identified schools that had a markedly high number of students withdrawing. The list included about 100 of Ohio’s 3,500 school buildings — or less than 3 percent, Sawyers said. He did not know how many of those buildings were being investigated.

Sawyers said districts are required under Ohio law to withdraw students after lengthy absences, and so showing up on the list with a high number of withdrawals doesn’t imply wrongdoing.