By Ashley McCarty

People’s Defender

Signed into law July 1, House Bill 110 overhauls the funding formula in Ohio and benefits charter schools and their families.

The School Fair Funding Plan, House Bill 110, was signed under the 2022-2023 Operating Budget by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

According to the official fact sheets provided by the government office, the Operating Budget invests $1.7 billion (8.7 percent) more in state funding for K-12 schools than in the prior biennium. The newly implemented formula increases support for schools and districts and provides more Ohio families access to educational choice options. The formula also continues support for programming to meet students’ social and emotional needs by including student wellness and success inside of its base cost for all students.

The formula includes dedicated funding for Student Wellness and Success. These services — such as physical and mental health services, after-school programming and family supports — are built into the formula. Schools will be notified of how much of their funding is dedicated to Student Wellness and Success.

The budget invests $50 million in funding to assist schools with the purchase of new school buses through the School Bus Purchase Program. Increased funding of $42 million per year will provide additional per-pupil funding to support brick and mortar community schools through the Community School Facilities Program.

The budget will increase the Quality Community School Fund to $54 million per year to encourage and identify high-quality charter schools. Charter schools must meet several criteria to access these funds.

The budget allocates $125 million in federal funds to establish Afterschool Child Enrichment Education Savings Accounts. This program will provide $500 to support afterschool and extended learning initiatives for up to 250,000 students whose family income is at or below 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Additionally, $1.6 billion in federal funding will support child nutrition programs.

The fiscal years 2022-2023 funding levels allow the Department of Education to leverage state and federal funds to promote high-quality professional development and school improvement initiatives. This includes targeted support for students with disabilities, literacy improvement, social and emotional learning, and promoting the use of data to improve learning for all students.

The plan determines state-aid based for schools on a formula of 60 percent local property taxes, 40 percent household income, along with other factors. The budget also increases the maximum amount for vouchers to attend private schools from $4,650 to $5,500 for children in grades K-8 and from $6,000 to $7,500 for high school students.

Woven into the bill were benefits for families and charter schools:

— Clarifications to EdChoice Scholarship eligibility

— Increased scholarship values

— Stronger protections for nonpublic and charter school transportation

— Charter schools permitted to operate in every district

— Increased facility funding for charter schools and full funding for the Community School Quality grant

— Tax credits for families who homeschool or enroll their children in non-chartered nonpublic schools

— Education savings accounts

Tax Credits/Education Savings Accounts

— Creates the Afterschool Child Enrichment (ACE) Educational Savings Accounts (ESA) for parents of eligible students (ages 6-18) whose family income is at or below 300 percent; uses $50 million in federal funding in the first year of the biennium and $75 million in the second year of the biennium for this purpose. ESAs will be $500 per child.

— Creates a $250 tax credit for qualifying materials and supplies for parents who home educate their children.

— Creates a $1,000 tax credit for those who donate to a Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO). SGOs will provide scholarships, primarily to low-income students, to attend a non-public school.

— Creates a tax credit up to $2,500 per year for tuition paid for students to attend a non-chartered nonpublic school for students from household family income below 300 percent FPL.

Scholarship Program Eligibility

— Eliminates the cap on the number of EdChoice scholarships that may be awarded.

— Clarifies EdChoice eligibility includes:

• Students who received an Autism or Jon Peterson Special Needs scholarship but no longer qualify for either of those scholarships because they no longer are in need of special education and related services.

• Siblings of students whose sibling received a scholarship for the school year immediately prior to the school year for which the student is seeking a scholarship.

• Students who are in foster care.

• Students who are in kinship care.

• Students enrolled in a private school (incoming Ninth-graders) who is or would be assigned to an eligible school;

— The Senate Version of HB110 phases out the requirement that a student first be enrolled, or enrolling, in a school building operated by the student’s resident school district or a community school to qualify for a performance-based EdChoice scholarship. The phase-out of public school enrollment would occur on the following schedule:

• For scholarships in the 2021-2022 school year, exempts students entering grades K-2.

• For 2022-2023, exempts students entering grades K-4.

• For 2023-2024, exempts students entering grades K-6.

• For 2024-2025, exempts students entering grades K-8.

• For 2025-2026, and each school year thereafter, exempts students entering grades K-12.

The Adams County Christian School and subsequently the families it serves are benefiting specifically from three components regarding EdChoice improvements.

“EdChoice increased their per-pupil amount of money that they could be eligible for. For Kindergarten through Eighth-grade students, EdChoice used to pay $4,650; that has now been increased to $5,500. This doesn’t affect the school, because we’re not increasing our rates, but it’s going to help some of our families. Let’s just say we had a family that received a 75 percent scholarship from EdChoice. They had to pay approximately $1,125 to the school out-of-pocket, that was their 25 percent. With EdChoice increasing their rates to $5,500, EdChoice will pay 75 percent of that, bringing down the out-of-pocket expense to roughly over $500. So, it’s a great benefit for my families. It saves them a lot of money,” said Administrator Amy Mason.

A sibling of an EdChoice student is now eligible to receive a scholarship.

“They’ve expanded the eligibility to include siblings. This was something that they put in last year as part of the COVID-19 rule, and the bill just passed made it permanent. I may have a student who lives in the West Union School District and is assigned to the West Union High School. Since this is considered a failing school district, students assigned to that building can come to this school on a traditional EdChoice scholarship. A traditional scholarship is different from the one we were just talking about,” said Mason.

An “expansion” scholarship is based on income, while a “traditional” scholarship is based on the school district and whether it is considered a “failing a school district.”

“We may have a family with a previously-enrolled eighth-grade student that wants to come to my school, they would be eligible for a traditional scholarship. They may also have a fourth-grade student who is assigned to the West Union School Elementary. That is not considered a failing school district, so this allows them to put their two children into the same school and both receive a traditional scholarship. Families can now join us,” said Mason.

The third main change is that there are now no limits on the number of scholarships for EdChoice “expansion.”

“In prior years, there were only a certain amount of scholarships, and when they ran out, if you applied too late you couldn’t receive them. Now, there is no limit on the number of scholarships available. There’s still plenty of time to apply for EdChoice Scholarships. It’s great if they can get them in in the month of July. They do need to be enrolled as a student here, so I would need to meet with that family to make sure this would be a great fit for them. We can file all of their paperwork this month and get their scholarship in order. So, we are still enrolling Kindergarten through Twelfth-grade,” said Mason.

For interested individuals, ACCS can be reached at (937) 544-5502 or email info@eaglesaccs.com.

The final version of the budget also includes $250 million for a broadband access grant program meant to boost connections to high-speed internet in underserved areas. The state estimates that 300,000 households and at least 1 million residents across Ohio lack broadband.