A new study of voucher programs across the country by the federal GAO found that the voucher programs were deficient in providing federal rights for student disabilities.

The GAO report says:

“Almost all of the 27 private school choice program websites provide a directory of participating schools and some provide guidance on selecting schools. However, GAO estimates that no more than half of all schools participating in any type of voucher program mention students with disabilities anywhere on their websites, according to GAO’s review of a nationally generalizable sample of websites of private schools in voucher programs. Further, GAO estimates that no more than 53 percent of private schools in voucher programs designed for students with disabilities provide disability-related information on their websites.

“GAO found private school choice programs inconsistently provide information on changes in rights and protections under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) when parents move a child with a disability from public to private school. In 2001, the U.S. Department of Education (Education) strongly encouraged states and school districts to notify parents of these changes, but according to Education, IDEA does not provide it with statutory authority to require this notification. According to GAO’s review of information provided by private school choice programs, and as confirmed by program officials, in school year 2016-17, 83 percent of students enrolled in a program designed specifically for students with disabilities were in a program that provided either no information about changes in IDEA rights or provided information that Education confirmed contained inaccuracies about these changes. Officials from national stakeholder groups, private choice programs, and Education told GAO that some parents do not understand that certain key IDEA rights and protections—such as discipline procedures and least restrictive environment requirements—change when parents move their child from public to private school. Ensuring that quality information is communicated consistently and accurately to parents can help address potential misunderstanding about changes in federal special education rights.”

The results of the study are summarized here.

This is ironic because Secretary of Education DeVos boasted about vouchers for students with disabilities when she spoke to Jeb Bush’s Privatization Summit.

The summary:

“Of the 27 programs studied by the GAO, only 8 of the programs required private schools to comply with annual financial audits, meaning that the states funding the schools often had no clear understanding of the programs the investments are funding.

“The GAO also found that many of the programs lack accountability and transparency when it comes to disability protections, education standards, professional standards and information distributed to parents.

“Findings from the GAO report include:

“Only about half of the private schools participating in voucher programs provided special education or disability-related information on their websites, creating a significant problem for families making a decision about where to send their children.

“Private school voucher programs are inconsistently providing information on changes in key protections and rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) when parents move a child with a disability from a public to a private school.

“83 percent of students who were enrolled in a program specifically designed for students with disabilities were enrolled in one that either provided no information or inaccurate information regarding the changes in IDEA rights.

“One third of the 27 programs operating in school year 2016-17 had no academic testing requirements and officials in two of the programs interviewed indicated that some private schools were unfamiliar or unequipped to administer standardized tests.

“Only one-third of the programs require schools to publically report test results.

“Only four programs provided information on the graduation rates at participating schools.

“Only an estimated 13 percent of all private schools participating in voucher programs provide student and school performance data on their websites.

“Just 17 of the programs required background checks on all employees or on employees with direct and unsupervised contact with children.”