NORTH CAROLINA S NEWEST SCHOOL CHOICE PROGRAM OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIPS October 2013 Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina
Table of Contents The Basics What is this program? Opportunity Scholarships How Does it Work? Eligibility Requirements Applying and Awarding Process Requirements for Nonpublic Schools Additional Information
THE BASICS WHAT IS THIS PROGRAM? Opportunity Scholarships The Opportunity Scholarship Program will provide scholarships of up to $4,200 per year for eligible children who choose to attend a private school. These will become available for the 2014-15 school year starting February 1, 2014.
OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIPS WHAT IS IT? The North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship program was passed in July 2013 and will help students who often have the greatest difficulty receiving critical educational resources by allowing them to receive scholarships up to $4,200 per student. The State Education Assistance Authority (SEAA) will administer the program and award the scholarships. The program s first scholarships will be awarded for the 2014-2015 school year.
Opportunity Scholarships HOW DOES IT WORK? To qualify for a scholarship for the 2014-2015 school year, a child must: Lives in a household that meets 100% Free and Reduced Lunch qualifications Be a full-time student who has not graduated from high school and attended a public school during the 2014 spring semester Scholarships of up to $4,200 will be awarded to eligible students. Scholarship amounts must not exceed the actual cost of tuition and fees. The SEAA will adopt temporary rules to administer the program for the first year, which may include using a random lottery system to award the scholarships.
Opportunity Scholarships INCOME ELIGIBILITY A student applying for a scholarship for the 2014-2015 school year must be from a household with an annual income that does not exceed 100% of Free and Reduced Lunch eligibility. Persons in Household 100% Free and Reduced Lunch Household of 2 could mean: one parent & one child $28,694 Household of 3 could mean: one parent & two children; two parents & one child Household of 4 could mean: one parent & three children; two parents & two children Household of 5 could mean: one parent & four children; two parents, two children, and a relative $36,131 $43,568 $51,005
Opportunity Scholarships APPLYING & AWARDING The SEAA will make applications available for the 2014-2015 school year no later than February 1, 2014. They will begin notifying scholarship recipients by March 1, 2014. Once a child has been awarded a scholarship, the SEAA will send scholarship funds to the appropriate nonpublic school at least twice each school year, after the family has selected and been admitted to a qualifying nonpublic school. The student s parent or guardian will be required to endorse the scholarship funds to the nonpublic school for deposit into the school s account. This must be done in person at the site of the nonpublic school.
Opportunity Scholarships NONPUBLIC SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY Nonpublic schools that participate in the Opportunity Scholarship program must meet the following requirements: Provide the SEAA with documentation for tuition and fees that have been charged to the student Conduct a criminal background check for the staff member with the highest decision-making authority Contract with a CPA to perform a financial review if the school receives more than $300,000 in scholarship funding Must not charge any additional fees to scholarship students that the school would not also charge to non-scholarship students
Opportunity Scholarships NONPUBLIC SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY (continued) Administer a nationally standardized test at least once a year to all scholarship students enrolled in grades three or higher. The test must measure performance in the areas of English grammar, reading, spelling, and mathematics Scores must be reported to the SEAA each year by July 15 Scores are not public record unless the school has more than 25 scholarship students Provide each scholarship student s parent/guardian an annual written report of the student s progress (including any standardized achievement test scores) Provide the SEAA with graduation rates of scholarship students
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION For more information about these scholarship opportunities, contact Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina: http://pefnc.org/ 434 Fayetteville St., Suite 1620 Raleigh, NC 27601 (919) 871-1084 Parents for Educational Freedom @PEFNC