ESA

Governor Reeves passed Senate Bill 2594 to extend the state’s Education Scholarship Account (ESA) program until 2024. The ESA program enables parents to direct a portion of their state education tax dollars to the educational setting and services of their choice.

The bill was passed as written by the Senate, which included the following changes:

• Requiring eligible schools to be state-accredited special purpose schools, state-accredited nonpublic schools, or nonpublic schools providing services for a student’s disability
• Removing out-of-state and online schooling options
• Requiring parents or the school to reimburse the district if students receive any services through the district
• Requiring students to take annual pre and post-assessments and submit scores to the department
• Narrowing the window for eligible applicants to those with an “active” Individualized Education Program (IEP) within the past 3 years

Parents of current ESA participants do not need to reapply each year; however, parents who received the ESA for 2019-2020 must complete the recertification form in order to continue to receive the ESA award. For more information, please click here.