Ohio Scholarship Program Review

[Guest guest]

I'd like to suggest everyone read Formative Evaluation of Ohio's Autism

Scholarship Program

http://www.loeo.state.oh.us/reports/PreEleSecPDF/Autism_Web.pdf

It was done by the Legislative Office of Education Oversight in May

2005. This is not a non-profit organization, but a branch of the Ohio

government. Some points made in the report (in no particular order)

are:

1. You have to apply and be APPROVED for the scholarship

2. Child must be enrolled in their " district of residence " . (I'm

reading it to mean they have to be attending the public school for where

they reside.)

3. Have an AGREED UPON IEP WRITTEN BY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT of

residence.

4. No administrative or judicial mediations or proceedings pending

5. Parents are REIMBURSED for tuition 4 times a year. IE: bills

have to be submitted before getting paid and it's about 3 months behind.

6. Schools accepting vouchers are required to have AT LEAST ONE

staff person with the appropriate credentials to provide the services

that will be claimed for reimbursement. Doesn't necessarily require

that that is the person providing the service just that they are on

staff.

7. " Once a child's parent(s) is notified by ODE that he/she has

been approved to participate in the Autism Scholarship Program, the

school district of residence is relieved of the federal mandate to

provide a FAPE... It is the responsibility of the child's parent(s) to

make sure his/her IEP is implemented and that the child's educational

needs are met. " (Seems pretty odd to me to have someone writing the IEP

that isn't responsible for it in any way.)

8. " The school district of residence, however, maintains the

responsibility for providing the initial multi-factored evaluation as

well as all subsequent re-evaluations required under IDEA, generally

done every three years. The district is also responsible for the

child's annual IEP. "

9. " In the event that an autistic student generates more base

cost and weighted state funding than the amount of the scholarship paid

to the parent, the school district retains the balance. " Sounds to me

like a case for schools writing the minimal IEP possible to lower the

cost of services so they can keep the balance.

10. Only 5% of the students eligible (diagnosed with autism) are using

the scholarship.

11. Can a school for autism meet the requirements of LRE???

Tonya