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Newsflash: More than 100,000 K-12 students are now eligible for the Ohio EdChoice Scholarship program!!

Quite a holiday gift for some 60,000 additional children was delivered by the Ohio legislature in late December.  By adjusting the eligibility criteria, one of the nation’s first K-12 statewide scholarship programs, known as EdChoice, more than doubled the number of students eligible in 2007 for the approximately 11,000 scholarships still available.

In 2005, EdChoice became permanent law and created 14,000 K-12 scholarships for an estimated 19,000 children who were attending public schools that had earned the lowest rating of “Academic Emergency” for three consecutive years on the State’s report card for schools.  Amazingly, in March 2006, the legislature expanded the eligibility to include those students attending schools rated in “Academic Watch” as well.  Thanks to this action, the number of eligible children exceeded 45,000.

About 3,000 EdChoice Scholarships were awarded for the 2006-07 school year.  This “take-up” of scholarships among those eligible compared quite well with the first year results in the nation’s other such scholarship programs in Milwaukee, Cleveland, Florida and Washington, D.C.  

Thirty-three private schools in Ohio enrolled 30 or more of these 3,000 EdChoice students in the program’s first year.  Visits by SCO staff to eighteen of these schools in Toledo, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati in late 2006 found principals pleased with how well the students and their parents had adapted to the school’s culture, academic rigor, and behavior and attendance expectations.  The administrators and each school’s teaching staff are confident that serving these children will result in graduates who are confident and capable of an expanded array of school and career choices as young adults!

Based upon school closings and several improved ratings for several of the public schools, it was estimated that about 35,000 children would be eligible for EdChoice in 2007.  However, the legislature decided that it was asking too much to have children in low rated schools for three consecutive years before making them eligible.  So they revised the law in December to expand the eligibility to include schools that had been rated in Emergency or Watch for two of the past three years.  Wow….this increased the number of public schools from which children may emerge in 2007 for a scholarship from 90 to more than 210!

School Choice Ohio’s Team of Local Centers has been expanded to help get the word out to many additional families, including cities such as Akron that had NO eligible children just a few months ago! More private schools have registered to participate in 2007.  SCO’s marketing outreach to families will feature parents whose children are using their EdChoice scholarship in this first year of the program.  These parents offer a first hand account of the impact of being empowered with additional educational choices for their children.

Ohio Autism Scholarship Program

It is estimated that there are in excess of 10,000 autistic children in Ohio between the ages of 3-18.  In 2004, the Ohio Legislature enacted the Autism Scholarship program which provides up to $20,000 per child.  There are more than 500 preschool and school aged children utilizing the expanded options available to them now through this program that has not yet been widely marketed.  

The Ohio Department of Education Department for Exceptional Children is pleased with the number of providers that have qualified for this program.  About 120 private providers are qualified to serve these Autism Scholarship students.  Seventeen of these providers are private schools and other providers include several hospitals, a center at a state university and numerous individuals and centers that have been approved by the State.  To date, Cleveland and Columbus have the most Autism Scholarship awardees.

In 2007, the Autism Scholarship was moved from pilot status to permanent law.  School Choice Ohio’s Team of Local Centers will also proactively market this program to make sure that all Ohio families that could benefit from these options have the necessary information and encouragement to take advantage of yet another important form of educational choice.  

Thanks to the many legislators, educators and supporters of these education choice programs in Ohio, 2007 will provide many additional families with the opportunity to partner with the school of their choice in service to the best interests of their children!

T.J. Wallace is president of the Paremos Group, a consulting firm for nonprofits with a special focus on schools, and School Choice Ohio’s Team Director for the statewide EdChoice Scholarship program.