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State Information
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Major Provisions
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Student Eligibility Requirements
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Previous public school attendance requirement
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Private School Participation Standards
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Cap on # of Vouchers Awarded
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Max. dollar value of voucher
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Arizona
Program: Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (2011)
Statute:
A.R.S. 15-2401 – 15-2404
Jurisdiction:
Statewide |
- Students with certain disabilities
- Students attending public schools or districts assigned a D or F under the school grading system
- Child of an active duty service member
- A student living in foster care |
Yes |
- Private schools are not required to administer state assessments to voucher recipients |
No cap |
90% of what the district would have received in state funding for each participating student |
Florida
Program:
John M. McKay Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program (2001)
Statute: Fla. Stat. § 1002.39
Jurisdiction:
Statewide |
- Students with certain disabilities
- Students with Individual Education Plans (IEPs) |
Yes |
- Must annually provide parents with a written statement of each student's progress
- Private schools are not required to administer state assessments but parents can ask that their student take state exams and the private school must cooperate |
No cap |
Equal to what a public school would receive for each participating student |
Georgia
Program:
Special Needs Scholarship Program (2007)
Statute:
O.C.G.A. TITLE 20
Chapter 2 Article 33
Jurisdiction:
Statewide |
- Students with certain disabilities
- Students must also have an IEP plan in effect |
Yes |
- Must have been open for at least one year or otherwise must get approval from the state on its financial stability
- Must report student assessment data to the state and to a student's parents |
No cap |
Equal to what a public school would receive for each participating student, not counting federal funds |
Indiana
Program:
Indiana Choice Scholarship Program (2011)
Statute:
IC 20-51-4
Jurisdiction:
Statewide |
All students with household incomes up to 150% of the free and reduced price lunch guideline |
Yes, student must have attended public school previous two semesters not counting kindergarten. If a student received a tax credit scholarship the previous school year then the public school attendance requirement is waived |
- Must be accredited by the state or a regional accrediting agency
- Schools must administer state assessments to scholarship recipients
- Schools will be included in the state school grading system
- Schools must implement annual teacher performance evaluation plans |
15,000 |
- 90% of the state per-pupil funding for students that qualify for free and reduced price lunch
- 50% of the state per-pupil funding for students with household incomes up to 150% of the amount required to qualify for free and reduced price lunch
- $4,500 for students in grades 1-8 |
Louisiana
Program:
- Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program (2008)
- School Choice Pilot Program for Certain Students with Exceptionalities (2010)
Statute:
- RS 17:4011 - 17:4025
- RS 17:4031
Jurisdiction:
- Income-based voucher: Statewide
- Special needs voucher: only eligible in certain parishes |
- All students with household incomes up to 250% of the federal poverty guideline and who attended a public school that received a school grade of C or lower under the school grading system
- Any student entering kindergarten who meets the income requirement
- Students in grades K-8 with Individual Education Plans (IEPs) who have been diagnosed with certain disabilities and live in an eligible parish |
- Income-based voucher: Yes
- Special needs voucher: No |
- Schools must develop an academic accountability system approved by the state
- Schools must administer state assessments to voucher recipients
- The state can waive any school participation requirement such as substituting the state assessment for a different assessment |
No cap |
- Income-based voucher: Equal to the state per-pupil allocation
- Special needs voucher: Up to 50% of the state per-pupil allocation |
Maine
Program:
Town Tuitioning Program (1873)
Statute:
M.R.S. 20-A § 2951 to 2955
Jurisdiction:
Statewide
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Students residing in a district that does not operate any public schools, or does not contract with school's of another district |
No |
- If at least 60% of a private school's student attendance is publicly funded, the school must participate in the state assessments
- Must be non-religious |
No cap |
Equal to the statewide average per-pupil allocation |
Mississippi
Program:
Mississippi Dyslexia Therapy Scholarship for Students with Dyslexia Program (2012)
Statute:
Miss. Code Ann. Title 37,
Chapter 173
2012 HB 1031
Jurisdiction:
Statewide |
Students in grades 1-6 who have been diagnosed with dyslexia |
No |
- Participating private schools must receive accreditation from the state in the practice of dyslexia therapy
- The therapy must be delivered by a licensed dyslexia therapist
- Must provide parents of scholarship recipients an annual report of the student's progress |
No cap |
Equal to the state's base per-pupil allocation plus any state and federal categorical funding that participants would otherwise qualify for |
Ohio
Program:
- Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program (1995)
- Educational Choice Scholarship Program (2005)
- Autism Scholarship Program (2003)
- Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program (2011)
Statute:
- O.R.S. § 3313.974 to 3313.979
- O.R.S. § 3310.01 to 3310.17
- O.R.S. § 3310.41
- O.R.S. §3310.51 to 3310.64
Jurisdiction:
Statewide |
- Any student living in the Cleveland School District; priority given to students with household incomes under 200% of poverty guideline
- Outside of Cleveland, students whose neighborhood school is low performing 2 out of 3 consecutive years
- Statewide, public school students diagnosed with Autism; special needs students with a current Individual Education Plan (IEP) |
- Yes, unless student is enrolled in a private school at the time it receives a nonpublic charter from the state and otherwise meets the student eligibility criteria
- Special Needs and Autism program participants must officially enroll in public school in order to receive a voucher |
- Private schools must be designated chartered nonpublic schools by the state
- Private schools cannot charge tuition above the value of the voucher to students with household incomes under 200% of the poverty guideline
- Chartered nonpublic schools must administer state assessments to voucher recipients
- For Special Needs and Autism programs, private education providers must be approved by the State Board of Education |
- In Cleveland there is no cap
- Under the Education Choice Scholarship Program there is a cap of 60,000 vouchers
- The Autism Scholarship Program has no cap
- The Special Needs Scholarship Program cannot issue scholarships to more than 5% of all Ohio students who qualify |
Cleveland and EdChoice Programs:
Grades K-8: $4,250
Grades 9-12: $5,000
Autism and Special Needs Programs: $20,000 |
Oklahoma
Program:
Lindsey Nicole Henry Students with Disabilities Scholarship Program (2010)
Statute:
70 O.S. § 13-101.1
Jurisdiction:
Statewide
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Any student with a disability who has an Individualized Education Plan |
Yes, the student must have spent the prior school year attending public school in the state |
- Must be accredited by the State Board of Education
- Must have been in operation for one school year or providing the State with evidence of financial stability
- Will be academically accountable to parents for meeting the educational needs of the student
- Adheres to its published discipline policy prior to the expulsion of a voucher student |
No cap |
The statute contains a funding formula that the State Department of Education must use annually to determine the max dollar value of the voucher |
Utah
Program:
Carson Smith Special Needs Scholarship Program (2005)
Statute:
U.C.A. 53A-1a-702 to 710
Jurisdiction:
Statewide |
- Students with certain disabilities that also have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) |
Yes |
- Must show evidence of financial stability
- Must administer an annual assessment of each voucher student's academic progress and report the results to the student's parents
- All participating schools must first apply to the state for approval |
No cap |
Depending on the amount of special services the student needs, vouchers can be between 150% and 250% of the weighted per-pupil state allocation |
Vermont
Program:
Town Tuitioning Program (1869)
Statute:
16 V.S.A. § 821 - 836
Jurisdiction:
Statewide |
Must live in a district that does not operate either an elementary school or a high school, and where the voters of the district have approved the use of public funds for private school tuition |
No |
- Private school must meet state school quality standards
- Can be a school located in the state or outside of the state |
No cap |
The voucher cannot exceed the average announced tuition of Vermont public schools |
Wisconsin
Program:
- Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (1990)
- Racine Parental Choice Program (2011)
Statute:
- W.S. § 119.23
- W.S. § 118.60
Jurisdiction:
Only in Milwaukee and Racine, WI
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Students with household incomes up to 300% of the federal poverty guideline |
- No in Milwaukee
- Yes in Racine |
- Participating schools must obtain accreditation by a private school accrediting agency
- Schools must provide at least 1,050 hours of direct instruction in grades 1-6 and 1,137 hours in grades 7-12
- Schools cannot reject program applicants for any reason other than not having space available
- Schools cannot charge any tuition on top of the voucher for students in grades K-8, or for students in grades 9-12 with household incomes up to 220% of the poverty guideline
- A series of minimum student performance requirements must be met by each participating school
- Participating schools must administer state assessments to all students enrolled in the private school |
- No cap in Milwaukee
- In Racine, there is a cap of 250 vouchers for the 2011-12 school year and 500 for the 2012-13 school year |
$6,442 in the 2010-11 school year. Increases by an amount equal to the increase in state public school funding. The value of the voucher can never decrease from one year to the next. |
Washington, D.C.
Program:
D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (2004)
Statute:
H.R.1473, 112th Cong. (2011)
Jurisdiction:
District of Columbia
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- Students with household incomes up to 185% of the federal poverty guideline
- Current participants can remain in the program each year unless their household income surpasses 300% of the poverty guideline
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No |
- Must provide parents with an annual report of their student's academic progress
- Must administer the assessment approved by the independent evaluator that tracks student performance in the program |
No cap |
- Grades K-8: $8,136
- Grades 9-12: $12,205
Maximum will increase annually with inflation |