Noem Copying Foster Child Voucher Program from ALEC

Oh, you know that great idea Governor Kristi Noem has to rebrand vouchers as scholarships for foster kids so she can divert more taxpayer dollars to religious schools and further undermine free, fair, and universal public education?

It’s not actually Governor Noem’s idea; it’s ALEC’s.

The American Legislative Exchange Council, a consortium of corporate-fascist plutocrats focused on helping the elites hoard wealth and power by co-opting state legislatures to weaken the power of the people. The “Foster Child Scholarship Program” is one of ALEC’s model bills, around since 2009 and last amended in 2014. Watch for this text to appear in Noem’s proposed bill:

Model Policy

Section 1. {Title.} The Foster Child Scholarship Program

Section 2. {Definitions.}

(A) “Program” means the Foster Child Scholarship Program created in this subchapter.

(B) “Eligible Student” means any elementary or secondary student who was eligible to attend a public school in [state] in the preceding semester or is starting school in [state] for the first time and is in foster care and/or is the biological sibling of a foster child.¹

(C) “Guardian” includes a parent, foster care parent, guardian, or other person with the authority to act on behalf of the child.²

(D) “Department” means the state agency or organization charged with administering the Foster Child Scholarship Program.³

(E) “Resident school district” means the public school district in which the student resides.

(F) “Participating school” means either a public school outside of the resident school district, a school run by another public entity, or any private school that provides education to elementary and/or secondary students and has notified the Department of its intention to participate in the program and comply with the program’s requirements.⁴

Section 3. {Basic Elements of the Foster Child Scholarship Program Act.}

(A) Any guardian of an eligible student shall qualify for a scholarship from the state for their foster child to enroll in and attend a participating school if:

(1) the student has been accepted for admission at a participating school; and

(2) the guardian has requested a scholarship from the state before the deadline established by the Department.

(B) Any eligible student shall retain program eligibility regardless of subsequent placement out of the foster care system and until his or her graduation from high school or his or her 21st birthday, whichever comes first.⁵

(C) Any eligible student will qualify for an annual scholarship in an amount equal to the lesser of:

(1) the participating school’s annual cost per pupil, including both operational and capital facility costs, including any costs associated with the eligible child’s special needs; or

(2) the dollar amount the resident school district would have received to serve and educate the eligible student from federal, state, and local sources had the student enrolled there, including costs for an Individualized Education Program for applicable students.⁶

(D) The decision to enroll in a participating school shall be made by the eligible student’s foster care parent if currently under foster care or by the student’s current legal guardian at the time of enrollment.⁷

(E) The scholarship is the entitlement of the eligible student under the supervision of the eligible student’s foster parent or legal guardian. The scholarship is never to be considered the entitlement of any school.

(F) A participating school may not refund, rebate, or share a student’s scholarship with a student, parent, or guardian in any manner. A student’s scholarship may be used for educational purposes such as tuition, special education services, transportation costs, uniforms, books or other school fees, tutoring, and other extracurricular programs with an educational purpose.⁸ Such expenses are authorized when a participating school is either providing these services or is under contract with a third party to provide these services. In either case, scholarship funds are payable only to the participating school.

(G) Participating schools can accept eligible students on a first-come, first-served basis until such time as they have more eligible students applying than spaces available. When participating schools are oversubscribed,⁹ they shall fill the available spaces by a random selection process, except that participating schools may give preference to biological siblings of enrolled participating students and previously enrolled scholarship students under this subchapter.¹⁰

(H) If a student is denied admission to a participating school because it has too few available spaces, the eligible student may transfer his or her scholarship to a participating school that has spaces available.

(I) A participating student shall be counted in the enrollment figures for his or her resident school district for the purpose of calculating state aid to the resident school district. The funds needed for a scholarship shall be subtracted from the state school aid payable to the student’s resident school district. Any aid the school district would have received for the student in excess of the funds needed for a scholarship will be kept by the state.¹¹

(J) The Department shall adopt rules consistent with this act regarding:

(1) the eligibility and participation of private schools including timelines that will maximize student and public and private school participation;

(2) the calculation and distribution of scholarships to eligible students;¹²

(3) the application and approval procedures for scholarships for eligible students and participating schools; and

(4) the sharing of student records between participating schools in compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 USC 1232g).

Section 4. {Responsibilities of Resident School Districts.}

(A) The resident school district shall provide a participating school that has admitted an eligible student under this program with a complete copy of the student’s school records while complying with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 USC 1232g).

(B) The resident school district shall provide transportation for an eligible student to and from the participating school under the same conditions as the resident school district is required to provide transportation for other resident students to private schools as per current law. The resident school district will qualify for state transportation aid for each student so transported.

Section 5. {Responsibilities of the Department.}

(A) The Department shall ensure that eligible students and their guardians are informed annually of which schools will be participating in the Foster Child Scholarship Program. This information should also be provided to all state agencies and organizations that are involved in issues pertaining to foster care to maximize the awareness among potential beneficiaries.

(B) The Department shall create a standard application that students interested in the Foster Child Scholarship Program can use to submit to participating schools to establish their eligibility and apply for admissions. Participating schools may require supplemental information from applicants. The Department shall ensure that the application is readily available to interested families through various sources, including the Internet.

(C) The Department may bar a school from participation in the Foster Child Scholarship Program if the Department establishes that the participating school has:

(1) intentionally and substantially misrepresented information required under Section 6; or¹³

(2) routinely failed to comply with the accountability standards established under Section 6; or

(3) failed to comply with Section 3(F); or

(4) failed to comply with Section 6(C); or

(5) failed to refund to the state any scholarship overpayments in a timely manner.

(D) If the Department decides to bar a participating school from the program, it shall notify eligible students and their guardians as quickly as possible. Participating students attending a school barred by the Department shall retain scholarship program eligibility to attend another participating school.

(E) The Department shall adopt rules and procedures as necessary for the administration of the Foster Child Scholarship Program.

Section 6. {Accountability Standards for Participating Schools.}

(A) Administrative Accountability Standards. To ensure that students are treated fairly and kept safe, all participating private schools shall:

(1) comply with all health and safety laws or codes that apply to private schools;

(2) hold a valid occupancy permit if required by their municipality;

(3) certify that they comply with the nondiscrimination policies set forth in 42 USC 1981;¹⁴ and

(4) conduct criminal background checks on employees. The participating school then shall:

(a) exclude from employment any people not permitted by state law to work in a private school; and

(b) exclude from employment any people that might reasonably pose a threat to the safety of students.¹⁵

(B) Financial Accountability Standards. To ensure that public funds are spent appropriately, all participating, private schools shall:

(1) demonstrate their financial accountability by:

(a) annually submitting to the Department a financial information report for the school that complies with uniform financial accounting standards established by the Department and conducted by a certified public accountant;¹⁶ and

(b) having an auditor certify the report is free of material misstatements and fairly represents the costs per pupil, including the costs of the testing required in subsection 4(C)(1)(a). The auditor’s report shall be limited in scope to those records that are necessary for the Department to make payments to participating schools on behalf of guardians for scholarships.

(2) demonstrate their financial viability by showing they can repay any funds that might be owed the state, if they are to receive $50,000 or more during the school year, by:¹⁷

(a) filing with the Department prior to the start of the school year a surety bond payable to the state in an amount equal to the aggregate amount of the Foster Child Scholarships expected to be paid during the school year to students admitted to the participating school; or

(b) filing with the Department prior to the start of the school year financial information that demonstrates the school has the ability to pay an aggregate amount equal to the amount of the Foster Child Scholarships expected to be paid during the school year to students admitted to the participating school.

(C) Academic Accountability Standards. There must be sufficient information about the academic impact parental choice scholarships have on participating students in order to allow parents and taxpayers to measure the achievements of the program, and therefore:

(1) participating schools shall:¹⁸

(a) annually administer either the state achievement tests or nationally norm-referenced tests that measure learning gains in math and language arts, and provide for value-added assessment, to all participating students in grades that require testing under the state’s accountability testing laws for public schools;

(b) provide the parents of each student with a copy of the results of the tests on an annual basis, beginning with the first year of testing;

(c) provide the test results to the state or an organization chosen by the state¹⁹ on an annual basis, beginning with the first year of testing; and

(d) report student information that would allow state to aggregate data by grade level, gender, family income level, and race; and

(e) provide graduation rates of participating students to the Department or an organization chosen by the state in a manner consistent with nationally recognized standards.

(2) the state or an organization chosen by the state shall:

(a) ensure compliance with all student privacy laws;

(b) collect all test results

(c) provide the test results and associated learning gains to the public via a state Web site after the third year of test and test-related data collection.²⁰The findings shall be aggregated by the students’ grade level, gender, family income level, number of years of participation in the scholarship program, and race; and²¹

(d) provide graduation rates to the public via a state Web site after the third year of test and test-related data collection.

(D) Participating School Autonomy. A participating, private school is autonomous and not an agent of the state or federal government and therefore:

(1) the Department or any other state agency may not in any way regulate the educational program of a participating, private school that accepts a Foster Child Scholarship;

(2) the creation of the Foster Child Scholarship Program does not expand the regulatory authority of the state, its officers, or any school district to impose any additional regulation of private schools beyond those reasonably necessary to enforce the requirements of the program; and

(3) participating, private schools shall be given the maximum freedom to provide for the educational needs of their students without governmental control.

Section 7. {Evaluation of the Foster Child Scholarship Program.}²²

(A) The legislative service agency may contract with one or more qualified researchers who have previous experience evaluating school choice programs to conduct a study of the program with funds other than state funds.

(B) The study shall assess:

(1) the level of participating students’ satisfaction with the program;

(2) the level of guardian satisfaction with the program;

(3) the percentage of participating students who exhibited behavioral problems at their resident school district compared with the percentage exhibiting behavioral problems at their participating school;

(4) the class size experienced by participating students at their resident school district and at their participating school; and

(5) the fiscal impact to the state and resident school districts of the program.

(C) The researchers who conduct the study shall:

(1) apply appropriate analytical and behavioral science methodologies to ensure public confidence in the study;

(2) protect the identity of participating schools and students by, among other things, keeping anonymous all disaggregated data other than that for the categories of grade level, gender, and race and ethnicity; and

(3) provide the legislature with a final copy of the evaluation of the program.

(D) The relevant public and private participating school from which students transfer to participate in the program shall cooperate with the research effort by providing student assessment results and any other data necessary to complete this study.

(E) The legislative service agency may accept grants to assist in funding this study.

(F) The legislature may require periodic reports from the researchers. After publishing their results, the researchers shall make their data and methodology available for public review while complying with the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 USC Section 1232g).

Section 8. {Effective Date.} The Foster Child Scholarship Program will be in effect beginning with the fall semester of the next school year [ALEC, model policy: “Foster Child Scholarship Program Act,” amended 2014.01.09, retrieved 2023.01.12].

Never mind that Kristi Noem doesn’t have any good ideas; she can’t even come up with her own bad ideas. She’s just a puppet of outside interests who care not one whit about South Dakota but only about their own power.