2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 59 - Education › Chapter 8 - Education Scholarship Trust Fund › Section 59-8-115. Standard application process; timeline; eligibility; requirements.

(A) The department shall create a standard application process and establish the timeline for parents to establish the eligibility of their student for the Education Scholarship Trust Fund program. The application window established shall last at least forty-five days, opening no earlier than January fifteenth and closing no later than March fifteenth each calendar year.
(B) Pursuant to the timeline established pursuant to subsection (A), the department shall:
(1) process applications in the order in which they are received, after a preference has been extended to all prior-year participants and their respective siblings; and
(2) enroll and issue award letters within thirty days of the deadline for receipt of completed applications and all required documentation.
(C) Before awarding a scholarship, the department shall have obtained evidence of the student's eligibility through the card issued in the student's name from the Department of Health and Human Services for Medicaid eligibility included as applicable with application documentation.
(D) Before awarding a scholarship, the department must obtain evidence of all other student eligibility criteria set forth in Section 59-8-110.
(E) The department shall approve an application for scholarship if:
(1) the parent submits an annual application for a scholarship in accordance with the application and procedures established by the department;
(2) the student on whose behalf the parent is applying is an eligible student;
(3) funds are available for the ESTF; and
(4) the parent signs an annual agreement with the department:
(a) to provide, at a minimum, a program of academic instruction for the eligible student in at least the subjects of English/language arts to include writing, mathematics, social studies, and science;
(b) to acknowledge and agree to comply with the education service provider's prescribed curriculum, dress code, and other requirements of enrolled students;
(c) to ensure the scholarship student takes assessments as referenced in Section 59-8-150 or provides assessments in a similar manner through other means if the scholarship student does not receive full-time instruction from an education service provider;
(d) to use program funds for qualifying expenses only for an approved provider to educate the scholarship student, subject to penalty;
(e) not to enroll their scholarship student in a public school as a full-time student in the resident school district, as defined in this chapter;
(f) not to participate in a home instruction program under Sections 59-65-40, 59-65-45, or 59-65-47;
(g) that includes documentation of the consultation process between the parent, the resident school district, the education service provider, and any school district that the education service provider contracts with under an IEP or services plan, for each scholarship student with a disability regarding the special education and related services, and the manner by which these services as listed in the student's IEP or services plan, will be provided to a scholarship student with a disability; and
(h) to confirm that, if the parent's child is a student with disabilities, the parent has received notice from the department that participation in the ESTF program is a parental placement of the scholarship student under IDEA, along with an explanation of the rights that parentally placed students possess under IDEA and any applicable state laws and regulations, including the consultation process provided for in 20 U.S.C. Section 1412(a)(10) and the Individual Education Program requirements described in Section 1414(d) of IDEA.
(F) The department shall make available on its website in a conspicuous location information in conformity with 34 C.F.R. Sections 300.130 through 300.144, Assistance to States for the Education of Children with Disabilities, explaining to parents the rights of children with disabilities under IDEA both in public schools and as parentally placed students in private schools.
(G) A parent will be allowed to make payments for the cost of educational goods and services not covered by the funds in their student's ESTF; however, personal deposits into an ESTF account are prohibited.
(H) Funds received pursuant to this section do not constitute taxable income to the parent of the scholarship student or to the student.
(I) A parent's signed agreement under subsection (E)(4) satisfies the state's compulsory attendance law pursuant to Section 59-65-10.
(J) The State Board of Education shall promulgate regulations for the administration of the program as may be applicable.
(K) The department may contract with qualified organizations to administer the program application process or specific functions, maintenance, and monitoring of the program application process as required above.
HISTORY: 2023 Act No. 8 (S.39), Section 1, eff June 3, 2023.
Editor's Note
2023 Act No. 8, Section 3, provides as follows:
"SECTION 3. This act takes effect thirty days after approval by the Governor, provided that upon approval of this act by the Governor, the Department of Education shall begin undertaking and executing responsibilities incidental to the implementation of this act so that the provisions of this act may be fully implemented thirty days after approval by the Governor."