Answers to common questions about Arizona's school voucher program
Supporters of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program, signed into law in 2011, said it was an essential path for students with disabilities, in the foster care system or attending low-rated schools to access private schools or tutoring.
A decade later, through several small expansions and then one significant legislative shift in 2022, Arizona’s ESA program has become the largest school voucher program in the nation.
Here are some answers to common questions about Arizona's school voucher program.
How do school vouchers work in Arizona?
Any school-age child who is a resident of Arizona is eligible to apply for an Empowerment Scholarship Account to fund private school tuition, curriculum, learning materials or educational therapies for students with disabilities. Students must be at least 5 years old on Jan. 1 of the year they apply.
Students accepted into the program will receive their funding each quarter. The program has three ways to pay for services: Direct Pay, through which vendors, schools or providers upload invoices to the payment portal and are paid through it; Marketplace, which has a list of preapproved items or services; or a reimbursement, under which a family pays out of pocket and then submits a receipt.
The program previously provided debit cards to families, but the administration paused issuing new cards in February 2023 amid concerns over families taking too long to return receipts or reply to department inquiries.
Financial transactions using ESA funds take place through the ClassWallet portal. The State Treasurer's Office is in the process of considering new vendors for the ESA portal.
It takes approximately three weeks from signing the ESA contract to set up a student’s account in ClassWallet, according to the department.
How much money can Arizona families receive under the ESA program?
Most students without disabilities will receive between $6,000 and $9,000 through the voucher program, according to the Arizona Department of Education's estimates.
The most common award amount is about $6,800, according to the department's most recent quarterly report about the program. However, according to that report, voucher award amounts range from just over $4,000 to more than $43,000. Kindergarten students without disabilities are on the low end of the range; students with disabilities will receive more funding and make up the higher end, according to the Education Department.
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Can home-school families receive school voucher funding?
Yes, families who educate their children at home can receive voucher funds. However, if a student gets those funds, they should not file an affidavit of intent to home-school or withdraw their affidavit. Instead, the ESA contract serves as proof that the student is receiving an education as required by law, according to the ESA handbook.
Who do I contact if I have questions about my Empowerment Scholarship Account?
The Arizona Department of Education administers the ESA program.
Enrolled families can call the ESA Support Line at 602-364-1969 from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or send questions or concerns by email through the Help Desk system.
ClassWallet is also available to answer questions by phone at 1-877-969-5536 or by email at [email protected].
The Education Department also hosts a Parent Advisory Committee, which meets with ESA staff several times yearly.
What items can families purchase using ESA funds?
The Education Department provides a list of items families can purchase through the voucher program on its website. It indicates whether or not those items require additional documentation for their planned use.
The department also provides a list of items that cannot be purchased using ESA funds, including amusement park tickets, baby grand pianos and day care fees.
How many US states have school voucher programs?
About one-third of states offer public money to help students access private school tuition or additional tutoring outside the public educational system.
Arizona’s program stands out because of the scant information it makes public about the students who receive voucher funds. So far, performance data, how long students remain in the program, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic background of students and how often families have to supplement tuition with their funds are all things that are not publicly known.
By contrast, Ohio requires the state to report funded students’ outcomes on standardized tests; Oklahoma reveals how many voucher-recipient students with disabilities are denied enrollment in private schools; and Indiana makes public student participation by ethnicity, household size, household income and geographic area.
What are families' experiences with the program?
As of mid-June 2023, there were more than 60,000 students in Arizona's school voucher program.
The Department of Education solicits feedback about their experiences through a phone line and digital help desk. Parents will also occasionally attend Arizona State Board of Education meetings to share their experiences with the ESA program.
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Some parents have shared positive experiences. But others, particularly families whose children are eligible for special education services, say that slow approval times and inconsistent responses from the department have made it difficult for their children to receive services.
Will the ESA program cost the state more money?
The case in which the state pays less for an ESA student is if the student leaves a charter school. That's because the state pays 90% of the state funding that would have otherwise been allocated to a charter school for the qualified student.
But many students in the ESA program were not previously enrolled in public school, making their voucher payments new costs to the state.
In addition, some students in the voucher program were previously enrolled in districts that do not receive state aid because of their significant local tax base. Those students are also costing the state dollars it was not spending previously.
Yana Kunichoff is a reporter on The Arizona Republic's K-12 education team. You can join The Republic's Facebook page and reach Yana at [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Your guide to understanding Arizona's school voucher program
