SUMMARY:  This bill would amend Article 33 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the O.C.G.A. to provide scholarships that would extend last year’s Senate Bill 10, which awarded tuition grants to special needs students.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Eligible students and definitions:
  • Students with disabilities who have IEP’s written by the school:
    • Autism;
    • Deaf/blind;
    • Deaf/hard of hearing;
    • Emotional and behavioral disorder;
    • Intellectual disability;
    • Orthopedic impairment;
    • Other health impairment;
    • Specific learning disability;
    • Speech-language impairment;
    • Traumatic brain injury;
    • Visual impairment.
  • Students in the psycho-education program
  • Section 504 students
    • A student eligible for services under Section 504 who has a plan written by the school in accordance with regulations
  • Foster care students
    • A student in the foster care system of the DFCS
  • Military family students.
    • A student with a parent on active duty;
    • A student with a parent in the national guard or reserves.
• Notice would have to be sent to all parents, not just special needs students, by letter, by electronic means, or by automated telephone calls, if they are done each January and April with a prescribed message that is contained in the bill.
• Notification would also have to be given at each IEP and Section 504 meeting.
• Public school transfers are also allowed, and trailers must be considered when determining if space is available.
• A student must have spent the prior school year in a Georgia public school to be eligible.
• DOE must provide application deadlines August 1, October 1, January 1 and March 1, and students would be eligible to transfer at any time during the year.
• Local school systems would be required to administer all state-wide assessments to these students if the parents requested.
• Scholarships could be in effect until the student would no longer be eligible to attend public school because of graduation or age.
• Acceptance of a scholarship would be equal to parental refusal to consent to services.
• Participating public or private schools would have to notify parents of their children’s teachers’ credentials.
• Participating private schools would not be held to any federal requirements, nor would they be prohibited from operating single sex schools.
• The amount of the scholarship would include a proportionate amount of:
  • QBE formula funds,
  • State categorical grants,
  • Non-QBE grants,
  • State equalization grants, and
  • All other state grants and funding for
    • Transportation
    • Food services
    • Building programs
• The proportional share would be determined by dividing the total funding by the total number of students in the school system.
• Directions are included in the bill regarding a payment schedule by the DOE to the parents of the eligible students who choose to use the scholarships.

NOTE:  This bill is a blatant effort, using the HOPE Scholarship’s name and popularity, to get the camel’s shoulders under the voucher tent after last year’s successful attempt to get its nose inside the tent.