LISA DAVIS
ASHTABULA - - About 17 parents attended an informational meeting about the Ohio Educational Choice (EdChoice) Scholarship program Wednesday, at SS. John and Paul Elementary School.
Lisa Huckins, EdChoice program consultant with the Ohio Department of Education, discussed the pilot program. The parents have children who attend Thurgood Marshall, Chestnut, Saybrook or Geneva elementary schools.
Those public school have received "academic emergency" or "academic watch" designations for two out of the past three years on the state's report card. Parents of students from those schools have the option of participating in EdChoice and moving their children into approved nonpublic schools, with the program providing vouchers paying for tuition.
There are 11,000 of the 14,000 scholarships still available, Huckins said. The program was first implemented for the 2006-2007 school year and 3,000 students are presently using EdChoice scholarships. Two-hundred and thirteen public schools are on the program's list in 34 school districts in Ohio.
The scholarships will only pay the tuition cost, up to $4,250 a year, for elementary school students (grade K-8), and $5,000 for high school. Other fees such as administrated fees, uniform cost or extra-curricular activity fees are not paid for, Huckins said.
"Once a student is enrolled in a private school and accepted to the EdChoice program they are in as long as they want," she said.
The program will continue yearly, with re-applying, up to the 12th grade, even if a student's public home school improves it's state rating, Huckins said.
Qualifying factors for the program are attending a school on the EdChoice list, even a charter school students qualifies if the public school they would have attended is on the list, she said. If a child will be entering kindergarten in the fall at a designated public school the child qualifies.
"The private schools also must meet certain standards to participate in the program," Huckins said.
Attendance records must be submitted to the state and the state achievement tests for grades three through eight must be administered by the private school, she said.
Interested parents must first apply and be accepted to a private school. Then another form is filled out for the EdChoice scholarship, Huckins said.
The deadline for EdChoice application is April 20, with notification of acceptance in June or July, she said.
Barbara Carraher has custody of her two grandchildren Savannah and Dylan. Carraher moved to Saybrook over the summer, she said.
Savannah, who is in second grade, had to attend Saybrook Elementary for a year before Carraher could apply for the program. Carraher attended the meeting to begin the application process for both Savannah and Dylan, who will begin kindergarten the 2007-2008 school year.
"I love the EdChoice program," Carraher said.
It's a wonderful opportunity for students whose families otherwise couldn't afford a private school, she said.
Addolorata Scarpitti's daughter Hannah is a kindergartner at Saybrook Elementary.
"I think the program is awesome," Scarpitti said. "It is helping to provide private schooling. I went to SS. John and Paul and want my daughter to go here."
Huckins suggested the parents start the application process soon. There are a lot of children eligible for the program this year, she said.
Non-public schools in the area parents can choose to send their children to under the EdChoice program are SS. John and Paul and Assumption School in Geneva.
