Commonwealth Charter Academy Lawsuits: Hoagland and Tuition Suits

Commonwealth Charter Academy, the largest cyber charter school in Pennsylvania, is currently tied up in three separate lawsuits and a related regulatory fight. A Philadelphia County wrongful death suit blames the school for failing to notice signs that 12-year-old student Malinda Hoagland was being tortured at home. Four western Pennsylvania school districts have sued in Commonwealth Court to stop paying tuition to CCA and to revoke its charter. And a years-long right-to-know case over how CCA reimburses families for outside activities has now produced a binding appellate ruling against the school. A fourth dispute, over Pennsylvania’s new weekly wellness check law, has not yet reached court but sits behind much of the current litigation.

The Malinda Hoagland Wrongful Death Lawsuit

In August 2024, the half-sisters of 12-year-old Malinda Hoagland filed a wrongful death lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County against CCA, a local school district, and government agencies.¹ Malinda, a Chester County resident enrolled at CCA, died on May 4, 2024. The Chester County Medical Examiner determined her cause of death was starvation and multiple blunt force injuries.²

The complaint alleges negligence and recklessness. Investigators found evidence Malinda had been shackled to furniture during her virtual classes, and the suit contends that CCA staff observed visible indicators of harm — bruising, swelling, and mood changes — without intervening.¹ One incident described in the complaint involved Malinda’s father forcing her to end a Zoom session so he could assault her.³ The Chester County Children, Youth, and Families office is also a defendant; the suit alleges the agency was notified of concerns about Malinda but closed its case without a full investigation.⁴

Plaintiffs’ attorney Ally Crouthamel has argued that cyber charters need systems to catch abuse comparable to what in-person teachers use, pointing to the failure to notice dramatic weight loss, shackle marks, and bruises visible through a screen.⁵ As of mid-2025, the suit remains pending, and CCA has said it cannot comment on specifics.⁶ Malinda’s father, Rendell Hoagland, pleaded guilty on January 16, 2026, to first-degree murder and related charges and was sentenced to life without parole plus 30 to 60 years.⁷

The Four-District Tuition and Charter Revocation Lawsuit

In November 2025, the Pittsburgh, Indiana Area, Leechburg Area, and Ligonier Valley school districts sued CCA in Commonwealth Court, seeking to stop paying tuition to the school and to have its charter revoked.⁸

What the Districts Allege

The districts argue CCA has been operating without a renewed charter since 2016. Its last five-year charter ran from July 2011 through June 2016, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education has neither renewed nor revoked it since. CCA has continued to grow under the terms of that expired agreement.⁸⁹

The suit also claims CCA fails to deliver a “thorough education,” citing state data showing 9.1% of CCA students scored proficient or above in English language arts and 4.2% in math, compared with statewide averages of 49.9% and 41.7%.⁸ PDE has designated CCA a “Comprehensive Support and Improvement” school, a label reserved for schools ranking in the bottom 5% statewide.¹⁰ CCA’s four-year graduation rate has been reported at 53%, with a five-year rate of 67%.¹¹

Finally, the districts allege CCA is over-billing and hoarding an unjustified surplus. They point to combined general fund and capital reserves growing from $95 million in July 2020 to $213 million by June 2023, a 124% increase. They call this a “slush fund” and argue the school is effectively operating as a for-profit enterprise in violation of the Cyber Charter School Law.⁸ They ask the court to revoke CCA’s charter, declare that districts do not have to pay it tuition, and bar PDE from redirecting state subsidies to CCA when districts withhold payment.

CCA’s Response

CCA has called the suit “baseless” and “a direct attack” on families who chose cyber education. The school argues Pennsylvania law keeps a charter valid until it is formally revoked, that PDE has never threatened revocation, and that renewal talks stalled only because the department demanded enrollment caps CCA considers unlawful.¹² CCA calls the PSSA data misleading, noting low standardized-test participation among cyber charter students because many families opt out. On finances, the school cites a February 2025 performance audit by the state Auditor General that, per CCA, found “no financial mismanagement, waste, fraud, or abuse of taxpayer dollars.”¹³ CCA points to a 271% enrollment increase from the four suing districts since 2019-20 as evidence that parents are choosing to leave traditional schools.

The audit itself offers something for both sides. It did not find fraud or illegal activity, but it flagged that CCA transferred $354.3 million from its general fund to its capital projects fund during the three-year audit period, with roughly $196 million spent to purchase or renovate 21 buildings — a use of funds the auditors questioned for an online school. Auditors also noted that neither state law nor regulation limits how much surplus a cyber charter can accumulate.¹⁴

The Right-to-Know Case Over Family Reimbursements

A separate legal battle over financial transparency has been running since 2022, and CCA has now lost it at the appellate level. In May 2022, Education Voters of PA filed a Right-to-Know request seeking copies of CCA’s “Community Class Registration Forms,” which parents submit to be reimbursed with public money for their children’s outside activities such as horseback riding, dance lessons, and youth sports fees.¹⁵

CCA provided aggregate data but refused to release the individual forms, arguing that even redacted versions would violate the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Education Voters appealed to the state Office of Open Records, which ruled in September 2022 that CCA had to produce the documents with personally identifiable information removed. CCA refused and challenged the ruling in the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas. Represented pro bono by the Public Interest Law Center, Education Voters won again on February 6, 2024, when the court ordered CCA to turn over the records by April 2024.¹⁵

CCA appealed once more to Commonwealth Court. On March 11, 2025, that court affirmed, holding that the public has a right to know how a cyber charter school spends taxpayer funds.¹⁶ In May 2025, the court granted a motion to designate the opinion as a reported decision, making it binding precedent for future right-to-know disputes involving charter schools.¹⁷ As of late March 2025, CCA had not turned over the forms and retained the option to petition the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

The Weekly Wellness Check Dispute

Malinda Hoagland’s death prompted Pennsylvania lawmakers to act. As part of the 2024 state budget, the legislature passed Act 55, requiring cyber charter schools to “ensure that each enrolled student is able to be visibly seen and communicated with in real time” on a weekly basis.¹⁸ Of Pennsylvania’s 14 cyber charter schools, CCA is the only one that has formally challenged the Department of Education’s interpretation of the requirement.⁵

In October 2024, CCA’s legal counsel Philip Murren argued that the statute’s phrase “is able to be seen” creates only an opportunity for contact, not a mandate that every student appear on camera each week. The school called applying the requirement to all of its roughly 30,000-plus students “unreasonable and impossible of execution,” noting that it uses both live and self-paced instruction. CCA also contended that existing child protective services law already requires school employees to report suspected abuse, making the wellness check mandate redundant.¹⁸

Secretary of Education Carrie Rowe identified CCA as the only cyber charter not in compliance with the wellness check law as of the 2024-25 school year.⁵ CCA has said its staff conducted over 1,500 home visits and made more than 1,670 referrals to county children and youth agencies that school year.⁶ A bill the state House passed in June 2025 would tighten the wellness check language and add penalties, including possible nonrenewal or revocation of a noncompliant school’s charter.¹⁸

About the Defendant

CCA was established in 2003, operating as Commonwealth Connections Academy before changing its name in 2016.⁹ The school is led by President and CEO Thomas D. Longenecker, who became CEO on July 1, 2020.¹⁹ Its Board of Trustees is chaired by Jeffrey E. Piccola, a former Republican state legislator.²⁰

Enrollment has grown from about 9,300 students in 2019-20 to more than 35,000 by the 2024-25 school year.⁶ Total revenue rose from roughly $164 million in 2019-20 to $421 million in 2022-23, with about 92% coming from tuition paid by local school districts. For 2022-23, CCA’s average per-pupil tuition for regular education students was $13,456, though rates ranged from about $7,000 to more than $25,000 depending on the sending district.⁹ CCA now enrolls roughly half of all cyber charter students in Pennsylvania, which is why every one of these lawsuits carries weight beyond the parties named in them.²¹

1
NBC Philadelphia. Family Sues Following Death of 12-Year-Old Chester County Girl
2
Chester County Government. News Release: Upgrade in Charges for Two Accused of First-Degree Murder of a 12-Year-Old
3
The Morning Call. Cyberschool Facing Wrongful Death Suit Says It’s Unreasonable for Teachers to See Students Weekly
4
Daily Local News. Half-Sisters of Malinda Hoagland File Suit Against Chester County, Local School District
5
NBC Philadelphia. After Child Dies and 2 Others at High Risk of Death, Concerns Raised Over Cyber Charters
6
Spotlight PA. Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School CCA Wellness Checks Wrongful Death
7
NBC Philadelphia. Father Pleads Guilty to Murdering Daughter Malinda Hoagland, Chester County
8
TribLive. Leechburg Area Among 4 Districts Suing State’s Largest Cyber School for Tuition Costs
9
PA Auditor General. Commonwealth Charter Academy Performance Audit
10
Commonwealth Charter Academy. Title I Compliance
11
Fund Our Schools PA. Former CEO of Commonwealth Charter Academy Testifies
12
Commonwealth Charter Academy. CCA Statement on Lawsuit Filed by Four Western Pennsylvania School Districts
13
Commonwealth Charter Academy. State Audit Confirms No Financial Mismanagement, Waste, Fraud, or Abuse
14
PA Auditor General. Special Report on Cyber Charter Schools
15
Education Voters PA. We Took a Cyber Charter to Court and Won
16
Education Voters PA. We Won the Cyber Charter Case on Appeal
17
Public Interest Law Center. Establishing Transparency in Cyber Charter Spending
18
Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Cyber Charter Says It’s Unreasonable to Perform Weekly Wellness Checks
19
Commonwealth Charter Academy. Longenecker Named to 50 Over 50
20
Broad and Liberty. Jeffrey E. Piccola: Contrary to Political Rhetoric, Cyber Charter Schools Are Public Schools
21
GovTech. The Unusual Ways Cyber Charter Schools Save and Spend