Debate over Arizona ESAs impacts on public schools continue

PHOENIX — Some Arizona school districts say they are spending money on students who don’t attend their schools.

Several district officials who ABC15 spoke with say this is happening with the universal expansion of the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, which makes K-12 students who do not attend public schools eligible to get public funding for educational needs. The money could be spent on private schools, curriculum and other extracurricular activities that have to do with education.

Since the legislature passed the expansion in 2022, the number of students using ESAs skyrocketed from around 11,000 students before the expansion to 77,450 students as of Monday.

Paul Tighe, with the Arizona School Administrators Association, an organization that helps school leaders, says districts reached out to him about the issue of an increase in special education evaluations for ESA students and the cost from that.

Public school districts receive funding per pupil attending their schools. Tighe said districts are losing out on money when ESA students, who come to them for these evaluations, do not attend their schools.

“When the kids aren't enrolled and never enroll after an assessment, there's no funding that the district is able to recoup the expenses incurred,” Tighe said.

According to the Arizona Department of Education, public schools are required by federal law to evaluate any students. An ADE spokesperson said this is required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), requiring any public education agencies to locate, identify and evaluate all children with disabilities.

“This “Child Find” includes children with disabilities who are attending private schools and those who are homeschooled (AAC R7-2-401(D)(1)). Evaluations obtained as part of Child Find and reevaluation activities may result in determinations of eligibility for special education under the IDEA,” a department spokesperson said.

The Phoenix Elementary School District said ESA evaluations cost them nearly $10,000 in the last school year. Costs include the time and money for personnel who would conduct these evaluations. That ranges from school psychologists, speech language pathologists and other professionals that could help identify any disabilities.

While the Chandler Unified School District did not offer a cost, a district spokesperson Stephanie Ingersoll said they did more evaluations for private placement in the first quarter of the school year than they did all of last year. The Queen Creek Unified School District responded ‘yes’ that the district is losing money in ESA special education evaluations but did not offer a dollar amount on how much.

The Kyrene Elementary School District said they evaluated about 30-40 students from private schools in previous years. However, it’s been rising, and they have conducted about 60 private school evaluations. A spokesperson said the personnel hours have cost the district more than $100k so far this school year.

The Deer Valley Unified School District (DVUSD) said as they’re complying with the rules, the costs are increasing.

“Outside of our obligation for Child Find… We have seen quite a large increase up to and around half $1 million,” said Melissa McCusker, the director of student support services with DVUSD. “When you look at the number of hours that these experts are devoting to this process for a family that has no intent to enroll in our school district, we're looking at an accumulation of quite a bit of money.”

There is federal funding for these special education evaluations, but according to Tighe, it doesn’t cover it all.

“There are studies that show how IDEA funds are roughly 40% the cost of special ed. So, it’s not even half of what the costs are. There’s really no mechanism to pay for evaluations of students who never attend your schools,” Tighe said.

Jenny Clark, the CEO of Love Your School, has several kids using ESAs and told ABC15 she found it fits her students better as opposed to going to public school.

“I myself have had four students evaluated in the public school system among two different school districts as potential students with a disability,” she said. “Four of my kids qualify for special education services.”

With districts discussing the costs of special education evaluations for ESA students, Clark told ABC15 the requirement has been around for quite some time.

“I think it’s really unfortunate that we’re trying to create a narrative that discriminates against ESA students when they’re legally allowed to get evaluated in the public school system,” she said.

The Arizona Department of Education said they are aware of the concerns from public school educators about the increase in evaluations.

“Since this is a requirement under federal law, changes would have to be considered by Congress,” an ADE spokesperson told ABC15.

We asked Tighe what a solution for districts in this instance would be. He said ESA families could use that money to pay for assessments.

“That would be a legitimate educational expense for an ESA voucher student and be one of the expenses that is covered so the district gets reimbursed for the expenses incurred. It doesn’t have to be the district. Perhaps an assessment would be done by an external provider, and they’d pay that out of the vouchers as well,” Tighe said.

Another dilemma some schools are facing with ESA students is allowing them to participate in extracurricular sports at public schools.

The ADE said public schools are not required to allow ESA students to participate, but it is required for homeschool students per state law.

Some districts, like the Fountain Hills Unified School District, are looking into allowing that to happen. In board meeting conversations between board members and school administrators in Fountain Hills, concerns have been raised about the cost. One board member said they should allow ESA students to participate as it will give them some money.

Another issue raised was knowing if the student is in good standing with their grades, as students in their district have to maintain their grades in order to play sports.

“Besides making sure the students are eligible with the same standards as us, my thought would be that cost would have to be much higher than we have our students that are here pay,” one FHUSD board member said.

“I don't know why a district wouldn't want a student who might be amazing in their particular sporting area to not participate. But it is the district's right to decline those students, but I think it’s unfortunate,” Clark said of ESA students who may not be able to participate in a public school sports program.

Mesa Public Schools, the largest district in Arizona, allows ESA students to participate in their sports program. While the district does not charge any of its public school students, it charges an ESA student about $2,000 per season in high school sports. A district spokesperson told ABC15 the money is used to cover the costs of programs.