For greater than a decade, Oklahoma taxpayers have backed non-public college tuition for college kids whose disabilities made studying in public college troublesome. And, till not too long ago, the state failed to gather even essentially the most fundamental info on these college students’ disabilities, gender, race, grade and their households’ earnings. That’s altering.
The state Schooling Division not too long ago began gathering and posting extra details about these college students to adjust to a 2019 regulation.
To totally comply, the division is amending its software to the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Program for the 2023-22 college yr to ask candidates demographic questions and supply a clearer image of collaborating college students. Functions processed earlier than the brand new software is prepared are receiving a supplemental information request kind, a spokeswoman for the division stated.
The regulation requires the division to report sure demographic details about individuals yearly. After a request from Oklahoma Watch, the division was solely in a position to present information for about 170 of the 996 college students who acquired scholarships by this system in 2019-20 as a result of the information was restricted to the scholars who had beforehand attended public faculties.
Starting this yr, all required information can be reported on the division’s web site by Oct. 1 for every earlier college yr, a division spokeswoman stated.
Requires extra public accountability have elevated as college selection applications in Oklahoma develop. The Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Program awarded a mixed $7 million in tuition funds to 996 college students in 2019-20, a $1.2 million improve from the yr earlier than.
And this yr the Legislature handed a significant growth of one other program, the Oklahoma Equal Alternative Scholarship Fund, which supplies taxpayers tax credit for donations to private and non-private faculties. People, married {couples} and firms donate to a scholarship granting group or basis, which then offers the funds to a personal or public college, minus an administrative price.
A brand new regulation elevating the annual tax credit score cap to $50 million additionally requires extra public reporting of the funds.
And but, these efforts nonetheless fall wanting what different states report. As an illustration, Oklahoma doesn’t require any educational information akin to commencement charges or check scores.
Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, who authored the 2019 invoice on the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Program, stated he wished to enhance transparency because it’s funded by public tax {dollars}. “We wished to ensure there’s no disparities and it’s honest,” he stated.
That’s why faculties at the moment are required to report the variety of scholarships authorized and denied. If a college denied a disproportionate variety of functions, that would elevate considerations.
That information, posted final week, reveals there have been 1,063 scholar functions in 2019-20. Of these, 26 have been denied and 93 have been withdrawn.
Analyzing college students’ race, gender and ethnicity information is one other option to examine for disparities, he stated.
The Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Program was established by the Legislature in 2010 to subsidize non-public college tuition for college kids with disabilities and was named after former Governor Brad Henry’s daughter, who died of a uncommon neuromuscular illness as an toddler. The legislature expanded eligibility to foster care youngsters and youngsters adopted out of state custody starting in 2017-18.
Funding for this system totaled $31 million between 2010 and 2023 and comes out of the Schooling Division’s state appropriation.
To take part, faculties should be authorized by the state Schooling Division however the necessities are minimal. There at the moment are 70 authorized faculties and most are spiritual.
Particular Care, a personal Oklahoma Metropolis college that educates and offers different companies to youngsters from 6 weeks outdated by kindergarten, received accredited as a personal college to assist its households qualify for scholarships, stated Pam Newby, govt director and co-founder. About two-thirds of the youngsters who attend Particular Care have disabilities and plenty of are medically fragile, requiring care that’s very costly to offer.
“(Lindsey Nicole Henry) helps us as a result of we’re a nonprofit and we’ve to fundraise to pay for highly-trained workers, therapists and gear,” Newby stated. “Most of our dad and mom can’t afford non-public college tuition in any respect.”
Fewer Necessities Than Different States
Colleges in this system should be accredited and display fiscal soundness and meet just a few different standards, akin to prohibiting discrimination on the idea of “race, colour or nationwide origin.”
An try by the Schooling Division so as to add extra protected courses of scholars (intercourse, incapacity, faith, sexual orientation and standing as a father or mother) to the antidiscrmination clause was invalidated in December by an legal professional common opinion.
Oklahoma’s school-choice applications had fewer necessities than different states, notably on public reporting and transparency measures, based on a 2023 Schooling Week survey of 29 states with school-choice applications.
We Need Your Enter
In case your scholar has utilized for or acquired a Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship, we wish to know extra about your expertise, particularly if in case you have had issue discovering a college or companies. E mail [email protected].
Seventeen of the states require the colleges to take part in a state or nationwide scholar evaluation; in eight states, the colleges should report the outcomes. Six states require faculties to report highschool commencement charges. Oklahoma doesn’t require any testing of personal college college students, together with these receiving vouchers.
The director of 1 collaborating college stated including educational necessities like in different states would take away a number of the flexibility of being a personal college.
“The extra they add, the tougher it is perhaps to ensure we’re assembly everybody’s wants,” stated Clair Bartley, govt director at Paths to Independence, a personal college in Bartlesville that educates college students with autism.
She stated the college evaluates every scholar’s development primarily based on an individualized plan, and whereas some college students take the ACT or benchmark assessments, for different college students, it wouldn’t make sense to require them to check.
Alternative Scholarship Program Reporting
The brand new information reporting necessities for the state’s different school-choice program, the Oklahoma Equal Alternative Scholarship Fund, are completely different from Lindsey Nicole Henry’s. That program just isn’t beneath the Schooling Division however is managed by scholarship-granting organizations, which gather donations and disperse the scholarship funds to personal faculties, and academic enchancment grant organizations, which gather donations for public faculties.
Underneath a brand new regulation, the Oklahoma Tax Fee can be required to publish the whole record of these organizations on its web site in addition to an audited monetary assertion of every and particulars concerning the “advantages, successes or failures” of this system.
Starting in 2023, scholarship-granting organizations most report:
• the quantity of funds and variety of scholarship college students for every college;
• whole contributions acquired;
• some demographic details about the scholars, akin to low-income and incapacity standing.
The reporting necessities for academic enchancment grant organizations, which embody the overall quantity of every grant and an outline of every, weren’t modified by the regulation.
Jennifer Palmer has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2016 and covers schooling. Contact her at (405) 761-0093 or [email protected]. Comply with her on Twitter @jpalmerOKC
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