The Latest Craig Harris Investigation Into the ESA Program Reveals Concerns About How Special Education Scholarships Are Determined

In Arizona, the average scholarship award for children whose families apply for an Empowerment Scholarship Account-Private School Voucher is about $10,000.

The average scholarship for a child with special education needs is about $30,000.

In a program that has been branded as a welfare/scam program for the rich and the fraudster class, 12 News Craig Harris’s latest investigation into the ESA program has revealed concerns about families who apply for the special education scholarship.

Harris’s investigations have found that most applicants are doing the right thing with paperwork submittal, educational delivery, and account reimbursements.

However, three concerns have surfaced from Harris’s reporting. These are:

• A dramatic 200 percent growth in special education ESA scholarships since 2022, from 7,000 children to 21,000.
• Like families in the non-special education ESA scholarship program, families are using the funds to save for college and purchase unapproved items like three bounce houses and post-K-12 college tuition.
• Perhaps most disturbing, families are being allowed to just submit a doctor’s evaluation/note to the ESA division to change their child’s classification to Special Education. In public education, a doctor’s evaluation is just one part of the 504 or IEP process. It is not the sole determining factor, and a team of educators, specialists, administrators, Special Education professionals, the student, and their family arrive at a consensus on determining the child’s needs and an annual plan to provide the best educational services and accomodations fro the child.

In Harris’s reporting, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs said at an event:

“This is more examples of why we need guardrails and accountability…We don’t do this with any other entitlement program.”

Dr. Teresa Leyba Ruiz, Democratic Candidate for Superintendent for Public Education commented to Blog for Arizona:

“I will always support transparency and accountability with taxpayer dollars. If taxpayers are providing enhanced funding for students with qualifying disabilities, then there should be a consistent and fair process for determining eligibility. All other states with voucher programs rely on district schools to conduct the assessments while ensuring they are reimbursed for their services. I support adopting this common-sense and widely used approach so that both taxpayers and students are protected.”

Assistant Democratic House Leader and educator Nancy Gutierrez also commented to Blog for Arizona:

“I support the original intent of the ESA voucher program and do want students with disabilities to have a quality education. I don’t think that a doctor’s note is sufficient. I think students should be evaluated by their district school and that the evaluation should be paid for with ESA funds.”

In an interview for an article on the last legislative session, Democratic Senate Leader Priya Sundareshan said of the latest Harris investigation:

“If there are families who are trying to designate their children as special ed just to tap into that extra money, and those children do not actually need to be designated as special ed. I think that is concerning.

I think it is yet another reason that we so badly need ESA reforms, because now we’re looking at families who are taking advantage of the system and drawing more and more resources from the public education dollars that would otherwise go to supporting children around the state. So it’s going to lead to ballooning costs, and it’s going to take away needed resources that we’ve seen already from the children who actually are special needs, who aren’t able to get the services that they need and deserve.”

Do you think they should be required to upload an IEP or a 504 to qualify?

“Yeah, and if they aren’t, then that’s exactly why we need more ESA reforms. And, certainly, the Republican majority has been unwilling to touch even the very slightest of it.”