O'Brien Introduces Bill to Bring Fairness to K-12 Scholarships

COLUMBUS— State Senator Sandra O'Brien (R-Ashtabula) this week introduced a bill to allow Ohio students attending a non-government school to take both a special needs scholarship and an EdChoice scholarship at the same time. Currently, students who qualify for either an autism or Jon Peterson Special Needs (JPSN) scholarship may only receive that scholarship, and they are not eligible to also receive an EdChoice scholarship.

The special needs scholarships themselves provide good funding to cover most, if not all, of the costs for services provided to the student. However, most autism and JPSN scholarships will not cover both service and tuition payments for a student attending a non-government school.

Because of this, many students who would otherwise attend a non-government school are not able to afford tuition at that school. Students with these scholarships have effectively been put at a disadvantage because of their need for the special needs scholarship.

“This is an issue of fairness,” said O’Brien, “and there is a simple fix.”

Senator O’Brien’s bill would allow those students to also receive an EdChoice scholarship on top of their special needs scholarship.

The bill will be up for a first hearing on Wednesday, January 29th in the Senate Education Committee. Learn more about the bill here.