Kayla Ward is a Policy Analyst for ExcelinEd. In this role, she supports the organization’s policy team to help states build and implement policies that promote educational quality, innovation and opportunity.
Last year, West Virginia established the Hope Scholarship program, the state’s first school choice program and the most expansive ESA in the country. A full 93 percent of the Mountain State’s K-12 students are eligible for the program, which provides each student with roughly $4,300 annually, per child, to spend on a range of state-approved educational goods and services.
Now, just one year after the legislation was adopted, West Virginia’s families are actively seeking a Hope Scholarship. In less than 3 months, more than 2,500 applications have been submitted and almost all of them (2,402) have been approved. This level of parent interest in the program reflects the work of on-the-ground partners who are committed to informing parents and eligible students of this new education option.
Implementing any large-scale, state-sponsored program requires extensive planning, often on a short timeline. Determining the role and responsibilities of community partners is critical, as is raising parent awareness and providing support with application processes. Building an ESA program from the ground-up also requires knowledge of the services available in a state and a plan for enticing new service providers to enter the market. And perhaps the largest hurdle any ESA administrator will face is creating and launching a secure platform that will help parents access the services they need while preventing fraud and abuse in the system. Legislation and regulation can provide guidance and guardrails but making an ESA program successful requires a broad group of stakeholders who want to see the program succeed. The appointed administrator will do some of this, but it would be wise to also engage civic organizations and local advocates who know the landscape across the state.
Launching a high-quality ESA program can be complex. Here are five critical steps that states should keep in mind to help ensure success:
In West Virginia, the Hope Scholarship program is housed in the State Treasurer’s office (WVSTO). In addition to spearheading implementation of the program, the WVSTO also took a leading role in parent engagement, with Treasurer Riley Moore traveling across the state for town halls and speaking with the media to highlight the opportunity available to Mountain State students. In addition, The Cardinal Institute, a local advocacy group that supported passage of the state’s first ESA, hired a “Hope Ambassador,” who attends local gatherings to build awareness of the program. The Institute also got the word out by mailing geotargeted postcards about the program and creating a resource web page for parents and providers. Staff sent out 70,000 postcards detailing the program to households with annual incomes at or below $50,000 and with children between the ages of 4 and 17 years old.
In West Virginia, a coalition of advocates and policymakers conducted research on the state’s educational service providers to determine what services Hope students could access right away. They leveraged this research to make providers aware that they could participate in the program and to identify gaps in services that the state should fill.
As more ESA programs emerge nationwide, more vendors who want to provide technology solutions are entering the market. Ideally, an ESA website should be easy for parents to navigate and, at the same time, prevent fraud from occurring. Many modern ESA platforms allow parents to complete an application and, once approved, make purchases with ESA funds using the same technology platform. The Purchasing experience can be similar to Amazon: Parents see all the educational services available to their child; click to purchase preferred services; and then see funds removed from their accounts to reflect purchases made. Platforms should include a variety of pre-approved, high-quality vendors, but there should also be room for parents to request eligible services or providers the state doesn’t currently include. Many states successfully allow parents to submit requests for services that the state vets and then approves or denies.
Parents need navigators to help them understand ESA programs and know their options. West Virginia drew from established ESA programs in Arizona and Florida when creating parent resources for the Hope Scholarship. Further, the state’s vendor, Education Market Assistant, has a dedicated contact center and email contact available for application questions from parents. Administrators should also consider language barriers that may exist in their state; Florida and Arizona provide resources in both English and Spanish.
States should put parents at the center of the process, from the application phase to the end of ESA utilization. Applications should ask only for necessary information and documentation and should be easy for any parent to navigate—including those with limited access to technology. Providing examples of documents parents will need to submit and even video tutorials are helpful. Real people matter, too. When a parent navigates a new experience, they need trustworthy people to turn to. Any state considering an ESA program should consider building a parent-centered advocacy team that can support parents one-on-one every step of the way.
As West Virginia kicks off their first year of facilitating ESA programs for students, partners and advocates will be watching. They will find it invaluable to watch the program unfold and learn best practices to maintain and improve the program moving forward. West Virginia’s approach can also serve as a guide for other states wanting to make improvements to their existing programs.
Are you interested in bringing an ESA to your state? Learn more about existing ESA programs and how they work.
