A bill that would expand a special-needs education voucher program to include foster children passed in a 82-3 vote\u00a0in the House Monday.<\/p>\n
Legislation enacted in 2015 established the Succeed Scholarship, a voucher program that uses public tax dollars to pay for students with special needs to attend private schools. The student must have an Individualized Education Program, an education plan for children\u00a0with disabilities in accordance with federal law, and must have attended a public school for one year. In order to participate in the scholarship, parents are required to waive their child\u2019s federal civil rights protections under the United States' Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.<\/p>\n
House Bill 1567 would make foster children living in group homes eligible for a scholarship. In a departure from the original intent of the voucher program, the children would not need to have an Individualized Education Program to qualify. Up to 20 of the vouchers could go to foster children.<\/p>\n
The State Board of Education capped the program at 100 vouchers for the 2016-17 school year. Subsequent years do not have a voucher cap. An appropriation bill for the state Department of Education calls for $800,000 to fund the Succeed Scholarship program, the same amount of funding for the program that was passed in the 2016 fiscal session of the General Assembly.<\/p>\n