12news.com

A 12News investigation found the number of special education students receiving Empowerment Scholarship Accounts has tripled in four years, with several families receiving more than $30,000 annually. Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program was created to give children with disabilities access to educational services that public schools could not provide. Fifteen years later, students with disabilities remain at the center of the program — but they are also fueling one of its fastest-growing and most expensive trends. 12News Investigates, using public records from the Arizona Department of Education, found that the number of students with disabilities receiving ESA vouchers for private or home schooling has tripled over the past four years, growing from about 7,000 students to more than 21,000. That’s a 200 percent increase — far higher than the growth in other state programs for children with disabilities, according to a top state official. The increase followed the Legislature’s 2022 decision to expand ESA eligibility to every K-12 student in Arizona. And one national school choice researcher found that Arizona has the fewest restrictions in the country on voucher students receiving top-dollar awards. Students without disabilities generally receive between $7,000 and $10,000 a year through the “universal” voucher program. And students who qualify with disabilities can receive more than $30,000 annually, with the largest award approaching $48,000, state records show.