Recently, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s (“ODEW”) Office of Nonpublic Educational Options issued “Scholarship Program Updates” on the Autism Scholarship.
In the update, ODEW outlines a few important things. First, ODEW noted that scholarship providers are not required members of a scholarship student’s IEP team. That is consistent with current law. But the manner in which ODEW speaks about scholarship providers’ participation in the IEP process does constitute a change for many districts, because it de-emphasizes (to the point of discouraging) partnerships between the providers and districts. ODEW notes that a parent can “invite” their child’s scholarship providers to the IEP meeting, and then the providers would be considered guests. They can only sign the IEP as a guest and not as one of the required members of the IEP team, even if the provider otherwise meets the requirements (i.e., if the provider is a general education teacher, intervention specialist, or related service provider).
The update then goes on to expressly state that “[a] provider does not and will not provide FAPE under the scholarship programs.” Again, this is consistent with current law, since the parents waive their right to FAPE from the school district while their child is on the scholarship. But the update reiterates and emphasizes that separation.
In addition to the general tone about participation of providers in IEP meetings, the update also expressly notes that IEP providers should not “participate” in writing goals, objectives, present levels of performance, etc. for the IEPs developed by the public school districts. While the law does and always did require public schools to bear responsibility for writing IEPs, prior to this, many public schools and scholarship providers worked collaboratively on a scholarship student’s IEP. Scholarship students are not being serviced by the public school district so it is often the providers who have the most comprehensive information about the students, and they have historically been able to provide valuable insight into the students’ needs.
Finally, the update reiterates that public school districts will have access to data from the scholarship providers to utilize when developing an IEP and doing an ETR through the required quarterly Progress Reports available through the State’s online system. ODEW’s perspective is that there is supposed to be separation between scholarship providers and the public school districts. Again, this will come as a change for many districts that have historically worked collaboratively to support resident students on the scholarship.
This update has gained some traction already, with some districts receiving correspondence from scholarship providers about their role in the IEP process and the sharing of information (outside the quarterly Progress Reports). Some have even noted that they will not provide input, interpretation, or discussion at IEP meetings, based on this update from ODEW. Given ODEW’s update, school districts may receive more and more pushback from providers in the future.