Special-education bill under fire

A bill that would provide a government voucher for students with disabilities to attend private school also could open the door for more controversial tuition tax credits.

"I think it's a very, very good way to help kids who do have special needs . . . and to pilot special vouchers or tuition tax credits," said Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, a critic of the separate tuition tax credits bill drafted by Rep. Jim Ferrin, R-Orem.

That's precisely the fear of Utah's school chief and the Utah Education Association, longtime opponents of vouchers and tuition tax credits.

And an advocacy group for people with disabilities, though it has not yet taken a position on the bill, doesn't like the looks of it, either.

"My inclination is that this is not a good bill for students with disabilities," said Donna Gleaves, executive director of the Arc of Utah.

"This flies in the face of everything we've been trying to accomplish in the last 30 years under IDEA," the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which guarantees educational services and inclusion for students with disabilities.

The draft bill, dubbed the "Carson Smith Special Needs Scholarships," is sponsored by Reps. Morgan Philpot, R-Sandy, and Merlynn Newbold, R-South Jordan. It is named after a constituent's 5-year-old boy attending the $21,000-a-year Carmen B. Pingree School for Children with Autism, which has a 2-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio.

"Public schools have some wonderful programs," said mother Cheryl Smith, who hopes to send Carson to public school someday.

"But the intensive, early intervention at the Pingree School is his only chance . . . to learn how to learn."

The bill would give a renewable, three-year scholarship to parents of children with mental retardation; an orthopedic, hearing, visual, speech, language or other health impairment; serious emotional disturbance; autism; learning disabilities; or traumatic brain injury. The student must qualify to receive special education services at a public school.

The bill basically would give parents their child's state weighted pupil unit (WPU) money — ranging, according to disability, from 1.73 to 2.5 times its value (now $2,150) — for private school tuition.

The Legislature would set aside "scholarship" money from the general fund, not the uniform school fund.

The State Board of Education would administer the program, including cutting parents checks, cross-referencing enrollment and investigating complaints.

Parents would be cautioned the private school might not provide the same services found in public schools, which adhere to federal requirements.

And participating private schools — which sponsors say could include the Pingree school, Cache Valley Learning Center, Woodland Hills and others — would have to require employee and volunteer background checks, adhere to health and safety laws, demonstrate financial stability, and annually test and report a scholarship's academic progress to the parent.

The bill is patterned after the Florida McKay scholarship program, which has grown from two to 12,000 beneficiaries, or 7 percent of that state's special education population, Newbold said.

It was uncertain how many of Utah's 52,000 special education students would seek the voucher. The bill's financial impact had yet to be calculated. It seeks no new money.

Gov. Olene Walker, whose veto power is viewed as the trump card to tuition tax credit legislation, has asked for more information about the bill's funding and safety and well-being of scholarship takers, spokeswoman Amanda Covington said.

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