Atlanta Public Schools educators have been offered a last-minute deal to keep them out of jail after being convicted of a cheating scandal, USA Today reports.

Ten out of the 11 educators will be sentenced Monday morning. The educators have been behind bars since April 1 on racketeering charges.

The deal would allow the teachers involved in the cheating scandal to not serve prison time. According to one of the defedants' lawyers, instead of prison time, they would serve home confinement sentences. The teachers would have to waive their right to appeal, make an apology and pay a fine of about $5,000. Under the deal, they would not be considered first-time offenders.

The administrators convicted in the scandal would receive a similar deal and will not serve any time in prison. But the difference would be that they would spend one year in jail instead of home confinement.

It is unknown whether the deals will be approved by Judge Jerry Baxter of Fulton County Superior Court. The defendants will also have to decide to accept the deals.

Activists in the community have been asking for leniency for the accused educators. Instead of jail, they have asked for alternative sentencing.

Judge Baxter has the power to sentence the educators to probation or prison. Rackeetering can be punished with 20 years of prison as the maximum penalty. It's not just rackeetering the educators have to worry about, as many of them have been charged with other things as well. 

The case against the educators is one of the nation's largest cheating scandals of its kind.

The educators were accused of falsifying test results so that they could keep their jobs or receive bonuses in Atlanta Public Schools. A total of 35 educated were indicted on charges of theft, racketeering and making false statements in 2013. Most of the educators plead guilty, and some testified at the trial. 

An investigation done by the state found that students were being given answers by teachers or having their answers changed after their tests were turned in as far back as 2005. Evidence of cheating was found in 44 schools with nearly 180 educators being involved. Teachers who tried to report the cheating were threatened with retaliation.