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A parent’s guide to the Kentucky Students with Special Needs Scholarship Program

1. What is the Kentucky Students with Special Needs Scholarship Program?

The program enables parents who are dissatisfied with their children’s progress in their current schools to apply for a scholarship to attend any participating public school outside their resident school district or any participating nonpublic school.

2. Who is eligible?

Any special-needs student in public school whose parents are dissatisfied with their progress may apply for a scholarship to attend another participating public or nonpublic school. Eligible students must have an individual education plan (IEP) from their current school.

3. Will scholarship amounts cover my child’s disability?

Yes. Kentucky Students with Special Needs Scholarships would be equal to the full per-pupil state base guarantee funding and disability add-on funds. For the 2006-07 school year, scholarships would be between $4,000 and $12,000, depending upon your child’s disability.

4. Do I need a lawyer?

No. Parents need only apply for a scholarship if they want to send their children elsewhere. The current special education system actually pits parents and educators against each other when disputes arise over separate placements for special-needs students. These disputes can take months or years of hearings, even litigation, to resolve. By participating in the Kentucky Students with Special Needs Scholarship Program, parents would not have to hire lawyers or take their children’s schools to court. Parents and educators would no longer have to spend their time filling out paperwork or navigating through bureaucratic red tape. Instead, parents could focus on their children and teachers could concentrate their efforts back on the classroom.

5. How do I apply for a Kentucky Students with Special Needs Scholarship?

Parents simply request a scholarship application from the Kentucky Department of Education. The department will inform the child’s current school district, which will have three days submit the student’s individual education plan (IEP). The Kentucky Department of Education then notifies parents of their child’s scholarship amount, along with an explanation. Applications will be available online.

6. Will scholarships cover nonpublic school tuition?

Yes, in most cases. Nearly 2,000 special-needs children with disabilities ranging from mild to severe currently attend nonpublic schools through school-district placements or at their parents’ request. Kentucky has more than 400 nonpublic schools with average tuition ranging from about $4,000 for elementary school, $4,700 for middle school to $6,100 for high school. Most nonpublic schools also offer tuition assistance. In most cases, a Kentucky Students with Special Needs Scholarship, which ranges from $4,000 to $12,000, would likely cover tuition and related expenses at most participating nonpublic schools.

7. Is transportation included?

Yes. Currently, school districts already pay to transport special-needs students to schools that offer the individualized education programs they need but cannot receive in their neighborhood schools. As part of the Kentucky Students with Special Needs Scholarship Program, resident school districts will also provide or pay for transportation to participating scholarship schools with funds provided by the state.

8. Will the Kentucky Students with Special Needs Scholarship Program drain money from public schools?

No. The scholarship program eliminates wasteful administration, excessive paperwork and expensive lawyers, saving public schools nearly $50 million annually in administrative costs alone. The scholarship program will also leave more money behind for schools to educate fewer students. In fact, no public school in any state or city with a scholarship program has ever seen its budget decline. In Kentucky, every participating special-needs student could save the state and local school districts approximately $5,100. If just 1 percent of Kentucky’s special-need children – roughly 1,100 – participate in the scholarship program, the state and local school districts could save $6 million during the next school year.

9. Are Kentucky Students with Special Needs Scholarship Program schools accountable?

Yes. All participating schools must regularly report to parents on their child’s progress. Of course, involved parents provide the best measure of accountability. At any time, parents can remove children from scholarship schools if they are dissatisfied, and send them to another scholarship school or return their children to their original schools.

10. Has a special needs student scholarship program been tried elsewhere?

Yes. In fact, approximately 2 percent of the country’s 6.1 million special-needs students are attending nonpublic schools at public expense today. Since 1999, four states – Florida, Ohio, Utah and Arizona – have implemented scholarship programs for special-needs students. City-wide scholarship programs in Cleveland and Milwaukee also have been serving special-needs students for more than 15 years. Approximately 21,000 children are currently benefiting from these programs.

Additional resources:

An Act relating to the Students with Special Needs Scholarship Program at http://www.bipps.org/specialneedsbill.pdf

Kentucky Education Rights, http://www.edrights.com/

Local School Directory, http://www.localschooldirectory.com/

GreatSchools, http://www.greatschools.net/

For more information, please contact Jim Waters, director of policy and communications for the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free-market think tank. He can be reached at (270) 782-2140 or jwaters@bipps.org.

The Bluegrass Institute is an independent research and educational institution offering free-market solutions to Kentucky's most pressing problems.

Permission to reprint Perspective commentaries, in whole or in part, is hereby granted, provided the author and his affiliations are cited. Authors are available for interviews by contacting the institute.

Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions
400 East Main Avenue, Bowling Green, KY 42101

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