School vouchers are often used to enable parents of children who have special needs to move their child from a school that does not meet their child’s needs to a school that can. Earlier this year, Ohio expanded its voucher program to include all kids with special needs. Here is an update on how that program is going.
In February of 2012, the state of Ohio expanded its school voucher program. Previous to the expansion, the voucher was available for students who had autism, only. The expansion opened up the availability of the vouchers to any student, who is attending any school, and who has any type of special need.
According to Dictionary.com a school voucher is “a government cash grant or tax credit for parents, equal to all or part of the cost of educating their child at an elementary or secondary school of their choice.” It might also be called an “educational voucher” or a “scholarship”. The voucher program in Ohio is called the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship.
The new school year has just begun. The Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship is, initially, helping pay for the private education of 1,369 students who have special needs. More are expected to apply for the voucher system this Fall.
Children who are in grades K – 12, and who have a disability and an IEP from their resident district are able to apply for the Jon Peterson scholarship. This includes students who are in public schools, who are in private schools, or who are home-schooled children.
So far, 199 applications for the voucher were made by parents whose children were in the Cincinnati Public Schools district. There were a total of 498 applications filed from the four-county Greater Cincinnati region. A school called the Springer School and Center in O’Bryonville has enrolled the most scholarship recipients in the state of Ohio. The school has enrolled 118 or the 190 students who received the voucher.
The way the voucher system functions in Ohio is that the money follows the child. Each student who is awarded a voucher can receive up to $20,000 a year. The total amount they receive is to pay for all, or part, of the expenses of attending a private school. The amount each child receives depends on the type of disability they have.
Critics of the voucher program are concerned that the result is that the public school systems are losing money. Piet van Lier, the communications director at Policy Matters Ohio said:
“This is another blow to districts that are being forced by the state to educate our neediest children with less money”. He also said: “It’s really not a scholarship. It’s really a transfer of funds from our district to the non-public provider”.
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