Ben DeGrow is a Senior Policy Director of Education Choice for ExcelinEd.
In recent years, 10 states have introduced education microgrant programs, providing small sums of money to parents to spend on supplemental educational services, like educational therapies or tutoring, to support their child’s learning. The concept blossomed as a creative way for states to use a portion of their vast federal COVID aid. In some cases, these programs were so successful and popular with parents that, states allocated their own money to keep them going.
Microgrant programs operate like education scholarship accounts, in that they give parents access to flexible education spending. Yet they differ in providing families with comparatively smaller sums of money, intended to supplement formal schooling. And in many states, the funds are available only for students enrolled in a public school.
Texas has a noteworthy program that’s worth highlighting. The Lone Star State offers parents of children with disabilities a Supplemental Special Education Services (SSES) microgrant, which is a $1,500 stipend to spend on approved goods and services of their choice. To date, the program has funded 75,000 students who have special needs, most of whom come from low-income families.
Texas launched the program two years ago, in early 2021, to help many of the students most deeply affected by disruptions to regular school services during the early phase of the pandemic. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott touted SSES as an option to provide “crucial academic resources to students with cognitive disabilities [that] will help close the educational gap caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Of the first $66 million spent by parents across the state, 97% was used to pay for tangible items like digital tablets and curricular materials. Parents largely chose these rather than tutoring or therapeutic services from any of more than a thousand approved providers, possibly perceiving greater value in purchasing discrete goods with the limited amount of funds provided. For rural families especially, their choice may also indicate a lack of access to qualified service providers in the vicinity.
While there are real limitations to connecting SSES microgrants directly with improvements in student achievement, parents report being overwhelmingly satisfied with the program. After a family has spent $1,000 from their account, the Texas Education Agency sends out a survey to each family. All but 2% of respondents agree that the items they spent money on “helped their children progress toward learning goals.”
To support the program, local private groups like Families Empowered help parents figure out if they qualify, how to apply and what options might be available to them. SSES funds enable real families like this one to purchase curriculum, supplies and services help their children overcome special learning challenges:
Every transaction made with microgrant funds is reviewed by a partner with the Texas Education Agency to ensure it is allowed under SSES guidelines. Further, administrators have placed limits on purchases, such as one computer per student, to help enforce the intended guidelines of the program.
Parent demand for supplemental education funds remains strong. Texas officials have received more than 110,000 applications, and the wait list for SSES funds continues to grow. Still, only about 12% of the state’s students with disabilities have been served by the program. Barring a change, SSES is currently scheduled to phase out by September 2024, the result of a 2021 legislative compromise to win approval for state funding. Lawmakers have the discretion to extend or remove that deadline during the current session.
For families looking for even greater flexibility, the Lone Star State is weighing ESA legislation. All existing ESA programs (in nine different states) give participants significantly more funds than SSES does. To be eligible, those students must not be enrolled in public schools. But there’s every reason to think two such programs could coexist, each supporting families who have opted for different paths.
While Texas is ahead of the curve on education microgrants, it is certainly not alone. Ohio launched its second round of parent-directed afterschool and enrichment funding in July. A few months later, Idaho started sending out state funds through its Empowering Grants initiative. Other states like Indiana are rolling out programs that put supplemental education dollars into families’ hands.
Microgrants may continue to grow their scope and reach in different states. They may pave the way for more robust options through education scholarship accounts. Regardless of which path (or both) that states follow, these programs are already giving more parents the taste of power to shape their children’s future. That’s a development worth celebrating this National School Choice Week.
