More than $1.6 million in state public school funds was paid last year to send 220 special-needs students to private schools under a 3-year-old law, nearly a year after surviving a state Supreme Court challenge.
The state spent $969,166 for 148 students the previous year, state figures show.
State Rep. Jason Nelson, who is co-author of the bill that created the voucher program, said it has exceeded his expectations, both in the number of children using it and the positive reports he hears from parents.
"Parents using the Henry scholarship have told me their children have been mainstreamed into regular classrooms successfully for the first time at a private school," the Oklahoma City Republican said.
Forty-nine private schools in the state have been approved to accept scholarship students, state figures show. Of those, 43 are religious schools. Only six specifically cater to students with special needs.
Those schools educate children with autism, communications disorders and physical disabilities, and children in recovery from substance abuse.
Last year, 34 schools were on the list, 11 of which were located in the Tulsa area.
Nelson said he has heard from many parents who are grateful for the financial help.
"One child is attending a specialized private school geared toward children with autism in the afternoon and is in a mainstreamed classroom in a second private school in the morning - without an aide," Nelson said.
Last year, the individual awards ranged from a high of $14,614 to a low of $3,102, state data shows. Typically, the vouchers don't cover the entire cost of a year in a private school, so parents must make up the difference.
Nelson also said he has heard from parents who told him the program gave them the ability to send their children, who were being relentlessly bullied, to a different school.
"They believe that change literally saved their child's life," he said.
According to state records, 16 children dropped out of the program last year. The state doesn't keep track of whether those children returned to a public school or moved away.
Nelson said he isn't surprised, and is actually encouraged, that some parents have tried the private school option but later returned to public schools.
"To me, it's all about finding the best classroom in the best school for each child, and we should celebrate any time parents do just that," he said.
The state Education Department refused to provide a breakdown of how much money each individual private school collected from the state under the program, saying it would compromise student confidentiality.
When former Gov. Brad Henry signed the bill into law in 2010, it prompted an outcry from numerous public school advocates who contended the law violates the state constitution's ban on the use of public funds by private religious institutions.
They argued the program also siphons much-needed funding from public education and was the beginning of an effort to privatize public education in Oklahoma.
"It's ... clear now that the Henry scholarship program has not hurt public schools as opponents said it would," Nelson said.
An attorney for Union and Jenks school districts, which were involved in litigation over the scholarships, declined to comment about the program.
The legislation was named in honor of the former governor's infant daughter who died in 1990.
In 2011, a group of 20 parents filed suit in federal court against the Broken Arrow, Jenks, Tulsa and Union districts, claiming their special needs children had been denied private school scholarships in 2010-11.
As the result of a state audit requested by state Attorney General Scott Pruitt, it was later proven that the districts had complied with the law and all parents in the lawsuit had received the funds.
Eventually, the law was reconfigured so that the state sent the funds directly to private schools, rather than the funds coming from individual districts.
A few months after the initial lawsuit was filed against four districts, Jenks and Union school districts filed a lawsuit in state court to challenge the constitutionality of the new law, naming the parents of three students in each district who had participated in the federal lawsuit against the schools.
In spring 2012, Tulsa District Court Judge Rebecca Nightingale ruled the law was unconstitutional but left it intact until an appeal was considered.
Attorneys for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C., who represented the parents for free, filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court.
The state Supreme Court threw out the case last November, ruling that the Union and Jenks school districts didn't have standing in the case. Both Cathy Burden and Kirby Lehman, who were superintendents at the time at Union and Jenks respectively, have since retired.
House Bill 3393 timeline
May 2010: Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Act, or House Bill 3393, is signed into law.
Fall 2010: Broken Arrow, Jenks, Liberty, Tulsa and Union school boards vote not to process the scholarships.
January 2011: Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt threatens legal action against those school districts and individual board members if they fail to comply with the law within the week.
January 2011: Broken Arrow, Jenks, Liberty and Union school districts announce that they will sue Pruitt over the constitutionality of the law. They also vote to process scholarships under the law until a decision is made on its constitutionality.
April 2011: Twenty parents sue Broken Arrow, Jenks, Tulsa and Union school districts in Tulsa federal court, saying their special-needs children were denied private school scholarships in 2010-11.
May 2011: The state Legislature passes HB 1744, which transfers responsibility for administering the scholarship program from the districts to the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
July 2011: In light of that legislation, federal Chief U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan grants the parents a stay so they can pursue "administrative remedies" through the state Education Department. Eagan invites the school districts to file their challenge of HB 3393's constitutionality in state court.
September 2011: Jenks and Union school districts file a countersuit in state court to challenge the constitutionality of the law on behalf of all school districts. Their suit names the parents of students in each district who participated in the federal lawsuit against the schools.
November 2011: The federal lawsuit against the Broken Arrow, Jenks, Tulsa and Union school districts is dismissed at the parents' request.
March 2012: Tulsa County District Judge Rebecca Nightingale strikes down the law, ruling it unconstitutional.
June 2012: Attorneys for the parents appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
November 2012: Oklahoma Supreme Court throws out the case, ruling that the school districts did not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the law.
Kim Archer 918-581-8315
kim.archer@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Special-needs vouchers total $1.6 million
Education
If Luis Delarosa didn’t know he was missed at Thoreau Demonstration Academy before, he knows it now. The 12-year-old is hospitalized because of a recurrence of leukemia.
He will represent Oklahoma in the national Teacher of the Year competition in the spring of 2014.
CONTACT THE REPORTER
918-581-8315
Email
