The Akron Legal News

House bill would revise guidelines for Autism Scholarship program

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 26, 2015

State Reps. Louis Blessing III, R-Cincinnati, and Jeffrey Rezabek, R-Dayton, are pushing for lawmakers to support a bill that would allow children who are with a legal, permanent or temporary custodian to apply for one of the state’s Autism Scholarships.

The Autism Scholarship Program pays scholarships, upon application, to the parents of identified autistic children in grades pre-kindergarten to 12.

The scholarship’s sole purpose is to pay all or part of the cost of sending a child to a public or an approved nonpublic special education program, instead of the one provided by the child’s resident school district.

Scholarship amounts are the lesser of the amount charged by the special education program or $27,000.

In sponsor testimony for House Bill 299 this week before the House Education Committee, Blessing said it was brought to his attention that legal, permanent and temporary custodians are unable to sign the application for the Autism Scholarship for children in their care.

“This summer, a constituent reached out to my office looking for assistance when a young girl, that she is the legal custodian of, no longer qualified for the Autism Scholarship because this woman became her legal custodian,” he said.

“This young girl, Kyia, was in foster care when she first received the Autism Scholarship and made significant progress toward her education and things most take for granted.”

When her foster mother became her legal custodian, Kyia lost her scholarship for the next school year.

“Within one school year, all of her progress was reversed and is now right back to where she started,” Blessing said.

“This change was due to her foster mother becoming her legal custodian and Kyia no longer having a Guardian Ad Litem.”

Some children with a Guardian Ad Litem are able to obtain the scholarship as long as they have power of attorney for that child.

According to a summary of HB 299, even if a child is in the legal custody of a government agency or a person other than the child’s natural or adoptive parent, the natural parent is still considered the parent of a child for purposes of the program because he or she continues to have “residual parental rights, privileges and responsibilities.”

However, a natural or adoptive parent whose custodial rights have been terminated is not considered to be a child’s parent for purposes of the program.

Additionally, “parent” can mean a child’s grandparent, rather than the natural or adoptive parent of a child, in either of the following circumstances: when a child is the subject of a power of attorney that grants to a grandparent of the child with whom the child is residing any of the parent’s rights and responsibilities regarding the care, physical custody and control of the child; or when a child is the subject of a caretaker authorization affidavit executed by the child’s grandparent.

If enacted, HB 299 would expand the program’s perimeters and permit the temporary, legal or permanent custodian of an identified autistic child, when the custodian is not the natural or adoptive parent of the child or a government agency, to apply for an Autism Scholarship.

“This change will align the Autism Scholarship language with the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship language so that all children that qualify for either are able to obtain the help that they need,” Blessing said.

“This change will allow a child’s custodian to apply for the scholarship that best fits the child’s needs.”

Under current program standards, any student who has been identified by their district as a child with autism and for whom the district has created an individualized education plan qualifies for the Autism Scholarship program.

The student must have a current IEP from the district of residence that is finalized and all parties, including the parent, must be in agreement with the IEP.

Students are eligible to participate in the program starting at age 3.

Blessing urged House members to support the proposed legislation.

“No child should have to suffer due to circumstances beyond their control,” he said.

HB 299 is co-sponsored by Reps. Jim Butler, Louis Terhar, Jonathan Dever, Andrew Brenner, Heather Bishoff, Sarah LaTourette, Cheryl Grossman, Stephen Huffman and Tim Schaffer.

The bill has not been scheduled for additional hearings.

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