On AR Watch

The Arkansas Department of Education lowered disability standards for its "education freedom account" applications, enabling private school families to nab LEARNS coupons as much as two years early.

• Nearly half of all students accessing LEARNS vouchers for the 2023-2024 academic year got approval on the basis of special needs


• LEARNS administrative guidelines state that disability-based approval should utilize standards from the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)


• Students were authorized for 2023-2024 LEARNS disability vouchers with as little paperwork as a physician's note


• Year 1 of LEARNS is intended for kids with specials needs, low earnings households, those in foster care, novice kindergartners, unhoused students and children of active service military


• ADE's standard ways independent school kids are cutting line for vouchers rather of waiting their turn

Ninety-five percent of the 4,975 trainees getting LEARNS vouchers did not participate in public school last year.

Forty-four percent of the students receiving LEARNS vouchers certify on the basis of impairment.

Some have framed this as a win for trainees with impairments. Documents On AR Watch acquired through the Freedom of Information Act recommend ADE's verification of impairment status is misaligned with Arkansas law.
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Verifying Disability

The emails and portal excerpts below were sent from the Department of Education to parents getting a LEARNS coupon for their child. In one e-mail, ADE informs a moms and dad that in order to certify under impairment, the parent must provide proof of a diagnosis with among the following:

1. The outcomes of a test done by the school district;


2. An Individualized Education Plan, or IEP (a legal document describing all unique education and related services a child received in public school);


3. A 504 strategy ( another legal file similar to an IEP); or


4. A doctor's note mentioning the kid has a qualifying medical diagnosis.

There is a lot to unload here.
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The very first three choices in the e-mails seem to line up with the requirements of IDEA law. District test results, 504 strategies, and IEPs are documents resulting in the process of figuring out whether a kid's special needs makes them eligible for services in a public school setting.

Alternative 4, supplying an easy physician's note, is a much lower standard than the other choices. It's fair to assume a physician's note is the documents the majority of the brand-new disability-based EFA recipients used. Since nearly all EFA receivers did not attend public school in 2015, they would not have had access to district screening or IEP documentation.

Skirting standards to customer service cutters

Other emails supplied through our FOIA request show that some students may have been provided LEARNS coupons based on disability without offering any of these main files.

Some independent schools have their own method of dealing with students who need additional aid. These are typically therapeutic strategies to use tutoring or something comparable. Often these plans are called an "academic accomplishment plan," "regulation service plan" or "individualized service plan" like what the moms and dad in the email below points out.
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There is no such thing as the "private school equivalent" to an IEP or a 504, but it appears these uncontrolled, irregular documents were accepted as evidence of disability.

Let's take a look at another thread between ADE and a parent just last month.

The moms and dad applied for an EFA based upon their child's eye condition. ADE emailed them explaining this is not a qualifying condition, and requested an IEP or 504 plan.



The parent responds that they have neither and explains that there is a possibility her daughter has dyslexia. She attached an evaluation from what seems a speech treatment firm.



The parent got a reply the exact same day approving the disability EFA.



Approval seems to have actually been approved based on this documentation that in no way fulfills the requirements set forth by IDEA requirements.

Another from the documents we obtained is discovered listed below. A moms and dad asks about the status of their child's application.



ADE reacts by informing them that their application was denied because they used under an anxiety diagnosis, and stress and anxiety is not one of the diagnoses that qualify under IDEA law.

The ADE team then informs the parent to consider whether their kid has any "additional disabilities that run concurrent with the stress and anxiety" such as ADD or ADHD. States to resubmit with that documentation.



On another similarly terrible note, we got an email from one moms and dad to ADE that discusses 2 of the 4 independent schools she called would not admit her child with a disability. Discrimination before our eyes.



Here is the bottom line: Students with impairments have been under-resourced in Arkansas for decades. That problem is not fixed through vouchers, and the recent ADE report and the documents above show this truth.

Almost half of all LEARNS students were authorized for coupons on ADE's basis of impairment.

Keep in mind-- these applications are not for services to help the child gain access to their education, like what IDEA provides. These LEARNS vouchers mostly went to families whose kids most likely went to private school already; the parents needed to just provide a physician's note to get their $6,600 private-school coupon.

Moms and dads of kids in public school, and the teachers and therapists who work with them, have to obtain weeks of data and spend thousands of dollars on screening in order for a child to receive the services they need. Apparently, similar requirements were to be utilized for this very first year of coupon candidates who looked for EFAs based on disabilities.

These students' distinct educational needs are not more met by a $6,600 coupon for tuition. They could, however, be satisfied in a well-funded public school that wants to invest in trainees whose academic needs are various from normal peers.

The message "LEARNS is helping kids with disabilities" is a lie.

With the basic numbers supplied by ADE, LEARNS appears like it's assisting students with specials needs. The easier the Sanders administration makes it for moms and dads to show eligibility, the easier it is for them to spin LEARNS as good policy.

The trainees who cut in line for coupons now would have gotten them in a few years no matter what, based on the plan LEARNS put forward. The rest of the state, and the huge majority of trainees with impairments, are relegated to even poorer schools with less assistance from the state.