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 … Continue reading →

The Louisiana Department of Education has been issuing private school vouchers to children who are part of the Special Education program. It is being done in a lottery type system. The result was that a child who has autism couldn’t attend the school his voucher was for because that school didn’t have resources to support students who have autism. A school voucher, according to Dictionary.com 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 can also be … Continue reading →

Public schools receive a certain amount of state funding for every student that is enrolled and that is part of a Special Education program. When students move to private schools, the funding goes with them. This could potentially influence a school district to push kids back into public schools, even in cases where it is not the best placement for a student. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law that is binding in all states. Part of IDEA calls for a free appropriate public education that will be provided at no cost to parents. In short, … Continue reading →

In Oklahoma, there has been an ongoing battle over school vouchers. It is specifically over the Lindsey Nichole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Act. The public schools aren’t complying with it. A series of lawsuits followed. Now, a judge has ruled that the special needs scholarships law is unconstitutional. There isn’t one, federal, rule that defines precisely how each state is required to deal with issues relating to school vouchers for students who have special needs. Therefore, each state must figure that out for itself. Sometimes, things work well. Other times, things result in a series of lawsuits. In … Continue reading →

There has been an ongoing struggle regarding the school voucher system in Georgia. The difficulty seems to be figuring out how to meet the needs of students who have special needs while keeping the budgets of the public schools in balance. Each state gets to decide, individually, what it wants to do regarding school vouchers. As far as I am aware, there isn’t a federal law that decides this for all states, across the board. This allows each state to create a program that is tailor made to fit best with the needs, and the budget, of their state. It … Continue reading →

Ohio has expanded its school voucher program to include all special education students. This means that parents of kids who have special needs, of any kind, can get financial support to put their child into a private school. The public schools may face financial difficulties as a result of the voucher system. 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 may also be called an “educational voucher” or a “scholarship”. … Continue reading →